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The Discovery FilesMongoose Maneuvers
Researchers from Virginia Tech -- funded by NSF -- are tracking several troops of banded mongoose in Northern Botswana, Southern Africa, to analyze their movements between urban centers and their natural environments as well as between different troops. Why you ask? Botswana mongoose have a novel tuberculosis pathogen which allows the research team to track how individual animals interact with one another and how that impacts the transmission.
Credit: National Science Foundation
Mongoose maneuvers
Hi, I'm Mo Barrow with The Discovery Files, from NSF -- the U.S. National Science Foundation.
Wait! What is that sound? That is a mongoose and researchers from Virginia Tech -- funded by NSF -- are tracking several troops of banded mongoose in Northern Botswana, Southern Africa, to analyze their movements between urban centers and their natural environments as well as between different troops.
Why you ask? Botswana mongoose have a novel tuberculosis pathogen which allows the research team to track how individual animals interact with one another and how that impacts the transmission of disease.
The scientists used genetic tools -- DNA markers in the genome sequence of the animals -- to assist them in tracking each mongoose. Over the last 20 years, they have been able to study the genetic make-up of various troops across different landscapes, and their travel patterns.
By using tractable systems, researchers can learn more about how disease dynamics are shaped by the host's behavior and environmental contributors. This knowledge will help them better understand and control disease transmission among humans.
When it comes to how disease spreads, the mongoose might be telling the researchers it's about, "location! Location! Location!"
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