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<p>This project will firstly develop new methods that incorporate environmental and social systems to understand how they interact with campylobacter. Secondly, it will develop new methods to investigate the behaviours of both humans and campylobacter over different temporal and spatial scales.</p>
The aims of this integrated, interdisciplinary research project are to:
<ul><li>identify the key reservoirs, environmental and social drivers of campylobacter that affect human disease</li>
<li>analyse seasonal variations in pathogen load and their impacts on exposure and disease</li>
<li>understand the relative roles of the transmission pathways and thus points of control</li>
<li>generate future projections of disease risk and its control</li></ul>
To achieve these aims objectives have been set respectively to:
<ol><li>identify how campylobacters persist in the natural environment and how environmental exposure influences their virulence; analyse the interaction between campylobacter populations and their environment; estimate the direct and indirect contribution of environment and human behaviour on the risk of human campylobacter infection</li>
<li>analyse spatial and temporal variation in campylobacter load in contrasting rural environments to quantify seasonal variation in human exposure to campylobacter</li>
<li>analyse the relative importance of different transmission pathways (recreation, water, food, etc.) to humans; risk perceptions of rural environment users; analyse effectiveness, acceptability, costs and benefits of interventions to reduce burden by estimating the current costs of campylobacter disease; analyse interventions and assess their acceptability</li>
<li>predict changes in disease burden due to environmental and/or social change; predict how future changes in climate, land use, countryside visits, food production and consumption will affect disease patterns and costs</li></ol>
<p>To achieve the objectives the study approach will look at the transmission of campylobacter to humans in a holistic manner. Historical data from clinical, environmental and social sciences will be analysed in an integrated way, which has never been done before. These data will be used to refine the study hypotheses for field studies to be carried out in the natural and farm environments, examining human behaviour, human-environment interactions and campylobacter ecology. The data obtained from these field studies will be examined by mathematical modelling to investigate the burden of disease and seasonal patterns in the light of various environmental/social changes. </p>
<p>Background: Many organisms that cause diarrhoeal disease are widely distributed in the environment with several different pathways leading to human disease. Most research into diarrhoeal disease to date has been largely biomedical and focussed on transmission through contaminated food or water, however, fundamental gaps in our knowledge remain. This project aims to fill these gaps by looking at the contributions to disease caused by human behaviour and human-environment interactions which may influence exposure to organisms and risk of disease. Campylobacter is the most common bacterial cause of diarrhoeal disease in the developed world. The transmission pathways for approximately 50% of human cases remain unknown. Seasonal dynamics do however, play a central role in the disease burden as about 40% of cases occur during a 'spring peak', yet the relative roles of environmental and food pathways, and their interaction, in this seasonal emergence are poorly understood. </p>