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Ecological Traits Driving the Outbreaks and Emergence of Zoonotic Pathogens
Daniel J Salkeld1, Paul Stapp1, Daniel W Tripp1
1Dan Salkeld (dansalkeld@gmail.com) is an ecologist and epidemiologist affiliated with the Department of Biology at Colorado State University. Paul Stapp is a professor in the Department of Biological Science at California State University, in Fullerton. Dan Tripp is a biologist at the Colorado Division of Parks and Wildlife, in Fort Collins. Ken Gage is the chief of the Flea-Borne Diseases Laboratory, of CDC's Bacterial Zoonoses Branch, Division of Vector-Borne Infectious Diseases, in Fort Collins, Colorado. Jen Lowell is a professor of Health Sciences at Carroll College, in Helena, Montana. Colleen Webb and Michael Antolin are professors in the Department of Biology at Colorado State University, with interests in disease ecology and evolution. Jory Brinkerhoff is a professor at the Department of Biology at the University of Richmond, in Virginia.
Abstract:
Infectious diseases that are transmitted from wildlife hosts to humans, such as the Ebola virus and MERS virus, can be difficult to understand because the pathogens emerge from complex multifaceted ecological interactions. We use a wildlife-pathogen system-prairie dogs (Cynomys ludovicianus) and the plague bacterium (Yersinia pestis)-to describe aspects of disease ecology that apply to many cases of emerging infectious disease. We show that the monitoring and surveillance of hosts and vectors during the buildup to disease outbreaks are crucial for understanding pathogen-transmission dynamics and that a community-ecology framework is important to identify reservoir hosts. Incorporating multidisciplinary approaches and frameworks may improve wildlife-pathogen surveillance and our understanding of seemingly sporadic and rare pathogen outbreaks.
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