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Peter Hudson
Study systems include
Rodents in Italy and the U.S.A.
Lagomorphs in Scotland
Grouse in the U.K. and Italy
Mongooses in Botswana
Salmonid fish in Finland
Helminths
Tuberculosis
Tick-borne diseases
Selected publications
Grear, D. A., & Hudson, P. (2011). The dynamics of macroparasite host-self-infection: a study of the patterns and processes of pinworm (oxyuridae) aggregation. Parasitology, 138(5), 619-627.
Keesing, F., Belden, L. K., Daszak, P., Dobson, A., Harvell, C. D., Holt, R. D., Hudson, P., . . . Ostfeld, R. S. (2010). Impacts of biodiversity on the emergence and transmission of infectious diseases. Nature, 468(7324), 647-652,
Luong, L. T., Perkins, S. E., Grear, D. A., Rizzoli, A., & Hudson, P. J. (2010). The relative importance of host characteristics and co-infection in generating variation in Heligmosomoldes polygyrus fecundity. Parasitology, 137(6), 1003-1012.
Rademaker, V., Herrera, H. M., Raffel, T. R., D'Andrea, P. S., Freitas, T. P. T., Abreu, U. G. P., Hudson, P. .J., & Jansen, A. M. (2009). What is the role of small rodents in the transmission cycle of Trypanosoma cruzi and Trypanosoma evansi (Kineteplastida Trypanosomatidae)? A study case in the Brazilian Pantanal. Acta Tropica, 111(2), 102-107.
Ferrari, N., Cattadori, I. M., Rizzoli, A., & Hudson, P. J. (2009). Heligmosomoides polygyrus reduces infectation of ixodes ricinus in free-living yellow-necked mice, Apodemus flavicollis. Parasitology, 136(3), 305-316.
Perkins, S. E., Ferrari, M. F., & Hudson, P. J. (2008). The effects of social structure and sex-biased transmission on macroparasite infection. Parasitology 135(13), 1561-1569.
Director, Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences
Willaman Professor of Biology
Email: pjh18@psu.edu
Phone: 814-865-6057
Office: 512 Mueller Lab
201 Life Sciences Building
344 Millennium Science Complex
Research interests
I focus on the ecology of wildlife diseases, including zoonoses. My group uses a mixture of fieldwork, laboratory studies and mathematical modeling to explore disease dynamics in three main study areas.
Epidemiology and population dynamics
- How disease flows through wild animal populations
- Mechanisms that lead to disease persistence within populations
- The consequences of individual infections on host population dynamics. For instance, how the sub-lethal effects of infection destabilize host population dynamics by influencing the fecundity of individuals.
Heterogeneities
- Identifying variation in transmission between infected individuals — and the role of "superspreaders" in disease dynamics.
Parasite interactions
- How infection by one disease agent alters host susceptibility to other parasites and pathogens.
- The consequences of these interactions for host population dynamics.
Much of my work has implications for the control of wildlife diseases, and of emerging zoonotic disease.
