Bat Malaria in Northern Uganda. A glimpse into our bat malaria project in Northern Uganda. My long-term research explores Hepatocystis parasite infections in African epauletted fruit bats, focusing on host-parasite dynamics and the impact of infections on bat health through a One Health perspective.
Collaborators: Dr. Imran Ejotre (Muni University, Arua, Uganda), Dr. DeeAnn M. Reeder & Dr. Ken Field (Bucknell University, USA)
Film Credits: M. Pappalardo & L. Schnurre; Music: Africa by Sneaky Club, Free Music Archive (CC BY-NC)
Field sites and Muni University Campus in Arua, Northern Uganda. My long-term research focus are Hepatocystis parasite infections in African epauletted fruit bats. We study host-parasite infection dynamics and the impact of infections on bat health using a OneHealth approach. © M. Pappalardo & L. Schnurre
I am a postdoctoral researcher with a research group at the Molecular Parasitology department at the Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany. Further, I am a guest researcher and lecturer at Muni University in Arua, Uganda; a Honorary Associate at Macquarie University in Sydney, and a Visiting scientist at the Museum of Natural History (MfN) in Berlin, Germany.
During my Biology studies, I joined biodiversity projects in Costa Rica, the USA, and West Africa and worked in the mammal collections of the MfN. I was awarded a Fellowship at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in New York to study bat (haemosporidian) malaria parasites, a subject that has remained a central focus of my academic career. I conducted my doctoral research at Max Planck Institute of Infection Biology, the AMNH and MfN. During my postdoctoral phase I joined the parasitology group at Macquarie University.
‘Malaria’ parasites of bats
The important vector-borne disease malaria is caused by eukaryotic protozoan parasites of the genus Plasmodium (Haemosporida). Human- and rodent-infecting Plasmodium species have been studied in detail, driven by the aim to understand the parasites´ basic biology and to develop new antimalarial drugs and effective vaccines, but they represent only a tiny fraction of the >550 described species of 19 genera of Haemosporida that infect diverse vertebrate groups. A comprehensive and molecular understanding of other haemosporidian taxa is required to solve many remaining fundamental questions in malaria research.
Bats have played an important role in the evolutionary history of malaria parasites. They feature the highest diversity of haemosporidian parasites among mammals and harbor several parasites that are closely related to mammalian Plasmodium species. My projects comprise the study of the diversity and evolution of malaria taxa of bats in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe and the Americas and the investigation of infection dynamics in bat-parasite systems in natural settings.
We are grateful for support from:
Juliane Schaer 