Investigations of leptospira in small mammalian host species in the Hawaiian islands

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dc.contributor.authorWong, Mayee
dc.date.accessioned2016-02-19T22:05:14Z
dc.date.available2016-02-19T22:05:14Z
dc.date.issued2012-12
dc.descriptionPh.D. University of Hawaii at Manoa 2012.
dc.descriptionIncludes bibliographical references.
dc.description.abstractConsidered the most widespread and prevalent of zoonoses, the emergent infectious leptospirosis disease is found throughout tropical regions in particular, with annual mean incidence rates in Hawaii consistently the highest in the United States. As a tropical archipelago with relatively low host and leptospiral diversity, Hawaii represents an exceptional opportunity for investigations in the ecology and evolution of this bacterial pathogen. In an effort to gain a better understanding of disease transmission dynamics and environmental drivers in Hawaii, the studies presented in this dissertation each take a distinct approach to examining the associations between three main components underlying the ecology of leptospirosis across the archipelago; namely, the Leptospira pathogen, animal hosts, and climate. First, I employed a longitudinal dataset of animal infection prevalence from a period of 14 consecutive years across five maintenance host species and three main islands to describe the epizootiological distribution of pathogenic leptospires in Hawaii. In a second study, I combined field biology and molecular lab techniques to characterize the 16S rRNA genetic diversity of Leptospira amongst a community of small mammals in a local rainforest. Finally, Hosmer-Lemeshow goodness-of-fit and Wald assessments of multivariate logistic regression models were used to investigate the association between rainfall and leptospiral animal infection prevalence at multiple spatio-temporal scales. The key findings in this dissertation address evolutionary patterns of host specificity, provide a preliminary examination of leptospiral genetic diversity in host vectors, and show that precipitation is an environmental driver of host infection prevalence at specific spatial and temporal scales. These results shed light on leptospiral transmission dynamics in a tropical region enzootic for the bacterial pathogen, and lay the foundation for an integrated eco-evolutionary model of leptospirosis in Hawaii.
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10125/100791
dc.language.isoeng
dc.publisher[Honolulu] : [University of Hawaii at Manoa], [December 2012]
dc.relationTheses for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (University of Hawaii at Manoa). Biomedical Sciences (Cell and Molecular Biology).
dc.subjectleptospira
dc.subjectprecipitation
dc.subjecthost infection prevalence
dc.subjecteco-evolutionary model
dc.titleInvestigations of leptospira in small mammalian host species in the Hawaiian islands
dc.typeThesis
dc.type.dcmiText

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Ph.D. - Biomedical Sciences (Cell & Molecular Biology)