Bats are important to public health as they can act as vectors to several potentially harmful zoonotic pathogens. Currently, however, no data exist on how bat ecology is reflected in dynamics of pathogens they carry, or how the changing climate may affect this. To understand prevalence and dynamics of pathogens in three bat species with different migratory behaviors, I will collect samples from museum specimens and from bats in Finland and Latvia. As knowledge of pathogen spread across the landscape is integral in forecasting disease emergence in e.g., humans, I will use predictive models to project future disease spread dynamics utilising knowledge of the host behaviour. Through an understanding of the composition of the pathogens of migratory species, we are able to predict climate change-induced shifts and the risks to humans. This work is monitoring for the next possible zoonotic disease that may affect the human population.

2021

2024