The hidden Parascape: genetic diversity of digenean parasites and their hosts within African National Parks

Animal distributions, including disease vectors and parasites, are influenced by environmental features, which can either facilitate or restrict their movement across the landscape. Local adaptation, dispersal behaviour and successful reproduction leaves a genomic footprint, allowing organisms to be tracked through space and time. Such data allow us to determine the drivers of disease emergence and spread, which can translate into more effective preventative and/or control measures to mitigate outbreaks. Schistosomiasis is a neglected tropical disease of great medical and veterinary importance caused by a parasitic trematode. The parasites have a complex transmission cycle involving specific aquatic freshwater snails and a mammalian host. Focusing on the Cape buffalo (Syncerus caffer caffer), a keystone species critical to the health of savannah grassland ecosystems, this studentship will involve fieldwork, species identification (snail and parasites) and landscape genomics to identify the drivers of schistosomiasis dynamics in the iconic Kruger National Park (KNP), South Africa. This project will provide a model for future landscape genomics of zoonotic disease vectors making a significant contribution to the field of molecular epidemiology.