Dr Jessica R. Furber
Academic and research departments
School of Veterinary Medicine, Neglected tropical diseases research, Mathematics at the Interface Group, School of Mathematics and Physics.About
My research project
How do badgers interact with their environment?There is little understanding on what are the most likely routes for environmental transmission. In addition, there is little understanding on how meteorological and climatic changes impact badger populations and dynamics. So our main goal is that we would like to be able to understand the movement of a badger and how environmental factors affect this.
Supervisors
There is little understanding on what are the most likely routes for environmental transmission. In addition, there is little understanding on how meteorological and climatic changes impact badger populations and dynamics. So our main goal is that we would like to be able to understand the movement of a badger and how environmental factors affect this.
My qualifications
Publications
Understanding animal movements at different spatial scales presents a significant challenge as their patterns can vary widely from daily foraging behaviours to broader migration or territorial movements. This challenge is of general interest because it impacts the ability to manage wildlife populations effectively. In this study, we conduct diffusion analysis based on European badger (Meles meles) movement data obtained from three different regions in the UK (Gloucestershire, Cornwall, and Northern Ireland) and fit a generalised linear mixed-effects model to examine the relationship between variables. We also feature a novel application of extended dynamic mode decomposition (EDMD) to uncover patterns relating to badger social organisation. By applying our approach to these different populations, we were able to assess its performance across a range of badger densities. A key result was that in some areas, EDMD clusters matched observed group home ranges, whilst in others, discrepancies likely arose because of population management interventions, such as badger culling. The methods presented offer a promising approach for studying territoriality and the impacts of management strategies on animal movement behaviour.
Vector-borne diseases are a major global health concern, with Rift Valley fever (RVF) serving as a key example due to its impact on both human and animal health. Effective control and prediction of such diseases require an understanding of how environmental factors influence mosquito ecology. As mosquito abundance, distribution, and behavior are shaped by ecological conditions, identifying these drivers is essential for anticipating transmission risk and informing public health interventions. This study aims to assess the sensitivity of key factors governing the ecology of mosquitoes, using a deterministic, compartmental model developed for the transmission of RVFV in Kenya. Specifically, we investigate the influence of four model parameters on mosquito abundance, focusing on the proportion of water body area utilized for oviposition. A literature review was conducted to establish parameter ranges and distributions. The Sobol method of global sensitivity analysis was then applied to a simplified model environment, firstly with constant temperature and water body area and secondly with periodic temperature and water body area. The indices calculated were used to rank the parameters based on their influence on mosquito abundance. The analysis showed that there is a need to reduce uncertainty in the area scanned by Culex and identified the proportion of water body area used for oviposition as a highly influential parameter. This finding underscores the need for further research into spatial oviposition trends across different water bodies, as current literature lacks sufficient data to inform realistic parameter estimates.