Title: US-UK Collab: Biological and Human Dimensions of Primate Retroviral Transmission
Funder: Economic and Social Research Council

Abstract: One of the great enduring mysteries in human health concerns the origin of AIDS. HIV-1, the retrovirus that causes pandemic AIDS, entered the human population from wild primates many decades ago, probably near the turn of the 20th century. How did this happen? Specifically, what social factors created the conditions that allowed a primate-borne virus to be transmitted to people, ultimately spreading around the world to become one of the deadliest infections in human history? We will attempt to provide answers to these questions by studying present-day interactions between people and wild primates in a "hot spot" of human-primate conflict and contact in western Uganda. We will focus on communities of people who live in close proximity to red colobus monkeys, an ideal study species for this research. Decades of research on these primates has revealed that they interact regularly with local people in a variety of contexts, including antagonistic interactions leading to the killing of primates and/or human injury, and that such interactions increase rates of disease transmission between the species. Our study will build on this exceptional base of information to understand how human social factors underpin "risky" human-primate interactions. Our study will begin with a series of surveys to understand how people perceive and experience the risks of disease transmission from primates. Because risky human-wildlife contact is tied to social resources (e.g. power, access, social situation, economic status), we will reconstruct social networks in order to identify individuals who hold critical knowledge about human-primate contact and the risk it might entail. We will then target these individuals in order to probe their attitudes and knowledge with respect to human-primate contact. We will complement this interview-based approach with "activity-space mapping," which will reveal the physical locations of human-primate contact. To gain insights into perceptions and cultural norms, we will use "participatory video," in which people are instructed in the use of video cameras and asked to record events from their own lives, to share stories, and to voice opinions on topics related to primates or disease transmission. At the same time that we study the human dimensions of disease transmission from primates, our colleagues based in the United States will study the primates themselves, in an effort to understand how retroviruses are maintained within primate populations with complex structure and demography. Our overall collaborative effort will yield a holistic picture of the root biological and social factors that drive the transmission of primate retroviruses. This effort will substantially improve our understanding of the biological and social conditions under which new and similar diseases might emerge, which will benefit public health on a global scale. Integral to our efforts will be the training of international scholars. We will train a unique team of British, Ugandan, and North American scholars in core methods from the social and natural sciences, and we will send our British scholars to Uganda and North America to participate in fieldwork and laboratory work, respectively. The international, cross-cultural exchange represented by our training efforts will enhance the quality of life, health, and creative output of British citizens now and into the future.


Research activity codes: 2.3 PSYCHOLOGICAL, SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC FACTORS;2.2 FACTORS RELATING TO PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT
Health categories: INFECTION