Duration: June 2025 - May 2029
People involved: Silja Griss, Ayrin Piephoh, Salome Dürr
Tracking Tails – An Interdisciplinary Approach to Understanding Cultural and Environmental Factors in Canine Disease Transmission and Control
Domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) bring a lot of benefits, but can carry and transmit diseases that pose significant health risks to both animals and humans worldwide. Understanding how dogs move, both within and between communities, is essential to controlling the spread of these diseases. This interdisciplinary and multinational research project explores dog movement in Uganda, Chad, India, and Indonesia, examining how it is influenced by human behavior and how these patterns contribute to disease transmission. To ensure that disease control strategies are effective, they must be adapted to the specific cultural, environmental, and social contexts in which they are implemented. Bringing together expertise from four institutes in veterinary epidemiology, social anthropology, genetics, and mathematical modeling, the project investigates the links between dog movement and disease dynamics. The research team collects data on dog behavior, health, and care practices using tools such as GPS tracking, pathogen screening, genetic analysis, and social research. Working closely with local academic partners and communities, the project aims to develop advanced models to simulate disease spread and assess both the effectiveness and local acceptability of different disease control strategies.
