Protocols for field and laboratory rodent studies - HAL

Background: CERoPath projectCERoPath (Community Ecology of Rodents and their Pathogens in a changing environment,www.ceropath.org) is a 4-year (2008-2011) project funded by the French Ministry of Research (FrenchANR Biodiversity ANR 07 BDIV 012). It involves scientists from France, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia andFinland.The CERoPath project investigates the structure ofmurine rodent communities, their pathogens(microparasites) and their macroparasites (helminthsand arthropods) in three South-East Asian countries,Cambodia, Lao P.D.R. and Thailand. South-East Asiais characterized by a high biodiversity (hotspot),threatened by rapid environmental changes under thepressure of economic development and insertion intothe global economy. In South-East Asia, rodents arehosts and vectors of several agents causing diseasesincluding leptospirosis, scrub typhus, viralhemorrhagic fevers and plague in humans andtrypanosomiasis in livestock.Seven sampling sites (Fig. 1) were selected along theMekong River in:- Thailand: Nan, Loei and Buriram provinces,- Lao PDR: Luang Prabang and Champasakprovinces (Pakse),- Cambodia: Mondolkiri and Krong PreahSihanouk provinces (Veal Renh).These locations represent a gradient of deforestationand human pressure, from highly forested areas withlow human density, to poorly forested areas with highhuman density.Rodents were sampled twice in each site: during thedry season (November-May) and during the rainyseason (June-October).Figure 1: Location of the seven CERoPathsampling sites in South-East AsiaThis project is based on the concepts and methods of evolutionary ecology and aims to:- characterize the likely processes that contribute to the observed patterns of host-pathogenassemblages, taking into account the ecological environment of rodent communities (using remotesensing and geographic information systems) and the evolutionary history of the interacting species(using population genetics, molecular epidemiology and community phylogenetics);- build projections of host and pathogen community change associated with ecological change, throughthe help of spatial analysis.Consequently, this book should be considered with the background of the CERoPath project, inthe geographical context of South-East Asia. Nevertheless, authors have tried to make information andrecommendations as general as possible to help further studies of rodents and rodent-borne diseasesin other contexts.V