Projects

The LUCINDA group comprises a multidisciplinary group of scientists within the Institute of Infection and Global Health at Liverpool University tackling the question of how best to develop quantitative models of the effects of climate change on infectious diseases of animals.

Two complementary approaches are being taken:

1. research into specific diseases or types of disease, and the development of models for climate change’s future effects on them;
2. broader-scale research into new approaches to modelling the effects of climate change on infectious animal diseases.

 

Current and recent activities include:

Covid-19 - we are undertaking Big Data and modelling studies to identify potential coronavirus hosts, hotspots for spill-over and the impact of climate on the rate of transmission

HORN - One Health Regional Network for the Horn of Africa - a £8.8M Global Challenges Research Fund Grow call project to build capacity in the area of One Health in Kenya, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somaliland.  See www.onehealthhorn.net

Bluetongue - a midge-borne viral disease of ruminants that is spreading in response to climate change. We are developing mathematical models to describe its spread between British farms; integrating state-of-the-art climate models and disease models to predict the future risk of the disease in Europe; and undertaking a programme of field work to better understand the ecology of the insect vectors.

See www.lucindagroup.org for simulations of BT in England and Wales, and other project outputs

Liver fluke - a trematode worm parasite of sheep and cattle (and occasionally humans) that has a snail intermediate host. We are developing climate-driven models of its future incidence and distribution; building statistical models of its present distribution in dairy farms in England and Wales in terms of climate and environmental variables; and improving understanding of the link between immunity to liver fluke and bovine tuberculosis.

Mosquito-borne arboviruses - We are determining the influence of temperature on the transmisskon of Zika virus and its Aedes vectors.

Malaria - we are investigating the influence of El Niño 2016 on the dynamics of malaria vectors in the Kilombero Valley of Tanzania. Watch a video here.

Enhanced Infectious Diseases database (EID2) - see next tab.

BBSRC Partnership Awards - we have an ongoing partnership awards in the area of vector-borne disease (common threats and shared solutions) with University of California Davis, UC Riverside, and University of Idaho.