Center for Tropical Research May 2011 Newsletter

Letter from the Director

Dear Friends,

Although you seldom find reference to it in today’s headlines, Africa’s Congo Basin is in crisis. The region suffers from some of the lowest per capita incomes and bears some of the highest human disease burdens in the world. Accelerated environmental devastation and a dearth of research and training opportunities for the next generation of African scientists, along with gross governmental inefficiency, impede the region’s ability to develop. These problems are being further exacerbated by climate change, with Africa projected to be the continent most severely affected. In a region already plagued by forced displacement caused by civil unrest, an estimated 480 million people are predicted to face severe water scarcity by 2025. Higher temperatures may also increase threats from diseases.

The region desperately needs a new generation of experts to help solve critical problems, but where will they come from?  Currently, less than 30% of Africans who study abroad ever return. We must rethink how academic institutions in the developed world interact with these nations. One way forward is for institutions of higher education to establish permanent  “centers” for research and training in the heart of the imperiled Congo Basin. Research informs large-scale development approaches, but this can only be done effectively if there is a means of testing new approaches on the ground. By leveraging the resources of the developed world’s top universities, such centers could be efficient test beds and provide critical conduits for quickly moving concepts to implementation. Directed research can inform scientists and policymakers how to best use emerging technologies to address health issues and how to achieve sufficient carbon sequestration and rainforest restoration to mitigate the effects of climate change.

In an effort to address these challenges, we recently established an International Research and Training Center (IRTC) in Yaoundé, Cameroon. To learn more about our efforts, visit the IRTC website or contact us if you plan to work in the region and would like assistance.

Sincere regards,
Thomas B. Smith, Ph.D.

Feature Article

How the Zebra Changed its Stripes: Evolution of Stripe Variation in the Plains Zebra
by Brenda Larison, Ph.D., Researcher, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Center for Tropical Research, Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, UCLA

Field Report

Using Remote Sensing to Map the Principal Carrier of Monkeypox Virus in the Congo Basin by Trevon Fuller, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Scholar, Center for Tropical Research, Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, UCLA

Updates

Avian Influenza Project Update

Kevin Njabo and Tony Chasar led field research teams in Cameroon during the Fall of 2010 to sample wild birds, domestic poultry, and swine as part of a multi-country collaborative effort to examine spillover and transmission of avian influenza. They also carried out observational studies and surveyed people to quantify the interactions between wild birds, domestic poultry, swine, and humans. Kevin’s team, which visited the northern and central regions of the country, collected more than 800 samples.

Tony Chasar, along with research team members Claire Loiseau and Francis Alemanji Forzi, successfully conducted surveillance in Ndibi, Cameroon, in the central region, and in Essiengbot, near the Dja Faunal Reserve, in the eastern region.  A total of 402 samples were collected from a wide range of wild and domestic birds. In addition, Tony’s field team traveled to the Republic of Congo in December 2010 to carry out the first sampling for avian influenza in wild birds to be conducted in that country. Working in collaboration with the Republic of Congo’s Ministry of Scientific Research and Technical Innovation, they carried out sampling at three sites. A total of 416 samples were collected in Lefini, in the Pool Department, in Epena, in the Likouala Department, and inside the Conkouati-Douli National Park in the Kouilou Department, which is situated along the coastal region near the border with Gabon.

Tony plans to begin surveillance sampling in the Democratic Republic of Congo in December 2011. Kevin and Tony will return to Cameroon in Fall 2011 to conduct additional surveys. They also plan to return to Egypt in June 2011. They carried out the first stage of influenza sampling in Egypt between April and June of 2010.

At the CTR laboratory at UCLA, staff researchers Erin Toffelmier and Sallie Chin have been analyzing the avian influenza cloacal samples that have been collected to determine the prevalence of the virus in wild birds and domestic poultry at each sampling site, and to assess which species are most likely to carry the virus. They have processed more than 1,600 inactivated samples collected in Cameroon, the Republic of Congo, and Egypt, while 1,600 paired culturable samples are being processed by Centre Pasteur in Cameroon and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. Senior Research Fellow Brenda Larison is spearheading our efforts to analyze how human and animal behaviors affect disease transmission at the interface between wild birds, domestic animals, and humans. Many undergraduate volunteer researchers are assisting with data entry and testing for these projects while receiving valuable training. These multi-country studies are being carried out in collaboration with the National Institutes of Health-Fogarty International Center and the Center for Influenza Research and Surveillance at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, which is funded by the National Institutes of Health-National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

CTR Welcomes New Researcher

Zachary Sun, a student in the M.D./Ph.D. program between UCLA and the California Institute of Technology, has been awarded a One Health Student Summer Research Fellowship from the University of California Global Health Institute for his proposal, “Investigating Influenza-A cross-species spillover dynamics in Cameroon.” He will work with CTR Africa Director Kevin Njabo and CTR researcher Tony Chasar  as part of our avian influenza study team in Cameroon and will be mentored by CTR Director Tom Smith.

CTR Affiliate Leaves UCLA for New Position

CTR Postdoctoral Scholar Henri Thomassen began a new position April 1, 2011 as Assistant Professor/Researcher in the Department of Comparative Zoology, Institute of Evolution and Ecology, at the University of Tübingen in Germany. He will continue his affiliation with CTR as a Senior Research Fellow and will be involved in various collaborative projects.

Field Research Trips

Hilton Oyamaguchi spent two months in Brazil during Fall 2010 collecting 300 samples of his target frog species Dendropsophus minutus from the transition zone between the Cerrado and the Amazon rainforest. His project is the first to examine the role that ecotones play in speciation and divergence in frogs in the Cerrado. His fieldwork was funded by the California Academy of Science and the UCLA Latin American Institute. CTR Director Tom Smith traveled to Brazil for two weeks in November 2010 to collect frogs with Hilton and his collaborators, Dr. Christiane Strussmann and Andre Pansonato, from the Universidade Federal do Mato Grosso.

Raul Sedano conducted fieldwork in the Andean region of Colombia from October through December 2010, visiting three field stations in Risaralda, Valle, and Nariño along the Western Cordillera (mountain range). One of the most intense rainy seasons in the past 100 years made fieldwork and locating his target species particularly challenging. While in Colombia, he met with young scientists in the countryside who were collecting data on birds in the páramos (highlands), the cloud forests, and from the Pacific Coast. He also attended the III Congreso Colombiano de Ornitologia (III Colombian Ornithological Congress) in Medellin from November 21-26, 2010, held in conjunction with the III Congreso Colombiano de Zoologia (III Colombian Congress of Zoology), where he presented a talk on “The role of altitudinal gradients in the evolutionary dynamics of avian body size in the Tropical Andes.”

Marisa Tellez traveled to southern Mexico for 10 days in January 2011 to investigate stomach nematodes of Crocodylus acutus, C. moreletii, and Caiman crocodilus chiapsius.  She sampled 30 crocodilians at four different sites. Marisa recorded the first parasite in Ca. crocodilus, and possibly discovered two new species of parasites. This research project, in collaboration with Dr. Mark Merchant from McNeese State University, is investigating the correlation of parasitism to alligator immune response, as well as evaluating the correlation of host toxin levels to parasite abundance.  Higher parasite abundance was found in crocodilians closer to urban areas, but further analysis needs to be conducted.

Pamela Thompson began a nine-month field stay in the Chamela-Cuixmala region of Jalisco, Mexico, in January 2011. She is studying the flowering phenology, bat pollinator visitation patterns, and gene flow in a tropical tree species called Crescentia alata. Her field stay is funded by a Fulbright-Garcia Robles Fellowship, whose mission is to promote mutual understanding between Mexico and the United States through educational and cultural exchanges.

Awards, Presentations, and Appointments

Emily Curd received a Systems and Integrative Biology Training Grant in Integrative Biology and Mathematics for 2011-2012 that will provide training in mathematical modeling for her dissertation project on soil microbial community ecology. This National Institutes of Health/National Institute of General Medical Science training grant is administered by the UCLA Department of Biomathematics.

Ana Paula Giorgi received a grant from the Society of Women Geographers to attend their 2011 triennial on Local and Global Sustainability from May 18-22, 2011 in Boulder, Colorado.

Ryan Harrigan has been working with vector control agencies in various southern California counties to understand and predict where infectious diseases, primarily those that are transmitted by mosquitos and migratory birds, are likely to occur. He attended the American Mosquito Control Association meeting in Anaheim, California, held March 20-24, 2011, where he gave three presentations on ongoing CTR projects: “Modeling West Nile virus under present and future climate conditions,” “Economy as a predictor of West Nile virus,” and “Avian malaria in a changing world.”

Brenda Larison was awarded a grant from the National Geographic Society’s Committee on Research and Exploration in May 2011 for her project, “How the zebra changed its stripes: the evolution of stripe variation in the plains zebra.”

Kevin Njabo was elected as a Member-at-Large to the Board of Directors of the Africa Section of the Society for Conservation Biology in January 2011. He was also appointed as an Assistant Researcher at the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability in February 2011 after working as a Postdoctoral Scholar at CTR since January 2007. Since August 2010, he has served as Africa Director and Associate Director for CTR.

Kevin Njabo and Adam Freedman have been invited to participate in the U.S.-Gabon Workshop 2011, “Evolution and Conservation of Central African Biological Diversity: New Approaches and Avenues for International Collaboration,” sponsored by the National Science Foundation, the University of New Orleans, the State University of New York at Albany, and the Université des Sciences et Techniques de Masuku. The main goal of the workshop, to be held in Franceville, Gabon, from May 21-28, is to provide a forum for collaborative exchange between key U.S. and foreign scientists actively engaged in research on the evolution of biological diversity in the equatorial rainforests of Central Africa. Kevin will lead the working group on evolutionary epidemiology and Adam will participate in the working group on comparative phylogeography and landscape genetics.

Kristen Ruegg was recently appointed to the position of Research Scientist with the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She will continue her collaborative work as a Senior Research Fellow at CTR, where she has been implementing cutting edge genetic techniques to help CTR researchers better understand patterns of migratory connectivity in Neotropical migratory songbirds.

Marisa Tellez attended the 1st International Workshop on Symbiotic Copepoda, held at the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium in San Pedro, California from December 4-8, 2010. She presented part of her dissertation project, entitled “Host-parasite distribution patterns of Alligator mississippiensis in Louisiana.” She also presented a poster, “Acanthocephalan parasitism of the southwestern speckled rattlesnake, Crotalus mitchellii pyrrhus.”

Pamela Thompson presented a talk entitled “Preliminary analysis of pollen flow in continuous and fragmented populations of Crescentia alata” at the Congreso Mexicano de Ecología III (III Mexican Congress of Ecology), held in Boca del Rio, Veracruz, Mexico, from April 3-7, 2011. The conference, hosted by the Mexican Scientific Society of Ecology (SCME), included 1,400 symposia, talks, and posters.

Grants

• St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee

  Animal Influenza Surveillance and Capacity Building in Africa (2010-2011)

Donors

CTR would like to thank Susan and Dan Gottlieb, owners of the G2 Gallery in Venice California, for their donations to Hilton Oyamaguchi’s field research in Brazil. We would also like to thank Lee Cooper for his contribution to the International Research and Training Center in Cameroon.