Epidemiology of Tuberculosis in Meerkats of the Kalahari
We study the epidemiology of tuberculosis in wild meerkats using a combination of fieldwork, laboratory investigations and long-term data analysis.
Challenge
Meerkats (Suricata suricatta) are social mammals that live in groups. A potential disadvantage of being social is that infectious diseases are more likely to spread. Tuberculosis (TB: a bacterial infection) was first detected in wild meerkats in southern Africa in the late 1990s. Since 2005 we have conducted research in the Kalahari Desert to better understand the epidemiology of this disease in meerkats, asking such questions as:
- What exactly causes TB in meerkats?
- How does it spread?
- Who infects whom?
- How accurate are diagnostic tests?
- Does vaccination help reduce the amount of disease?
- What are the long-term impacts of TB on the population?
In addition to gaining knowledge of the epidemiology of TB in meerkats, insights from our research are helping inform how TB is tackled in other spe