wildgut | Objectives

WILDGUT will identify gut micro-biodiversity indices useful for improving conservation strategies, using wild non-human primates as models.

The necessary dataset will be generated using metataxonomics as well as traditional and molecular parasitology to measure gut microbial and helminth diversity of two non-human primate species living in both intact and degraded forested areas of the Udzungwa Mountains of Tanzania. Using faecal samples collected from free-ranging groups of Udzungwa red colobus monkeys and yellow baboons, the specific objectives are:

- to assess the composition and functional diversity of gut microbiota and helminth communities from both species living in;

- to identify interactions between the four-way interplays (hosts, gut microbiota, helminths and habitats) and develop useful indices for assessing species conservation status;

- to evaluate how best to apply this new approach in practice, and make recommendations that could be adopted by local and global animal conservation management plans.

The project is co-ordinated by Fondazione Edmund Mach (FEM), Italy, and includes partners from the United States of America (Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology (IGB) at the University of Illinois (IL) and Italy (MUSE-Museo delle Scienze, MUSE), as well as the University of Veterinary and Pharmaceutical Sciences Brno (VFU), in the Czech Republic as a collaborator.