Emerging infectious pathogens of wildlife

Abstract

The ¢rst part of this paper surveys emerging pathogens of wildlife recorded on the ProMED Web site for a 2-year period between 1998 and 2000. The majority of pathogens recorded as causing disease outbreaks in wildlife were viral in origin. Anthropogenic activities caused the outbreaks in a signi¢cant majority of cases. The second part of the paper develops some matrix models for quantifying the basic reproductive number, R 0 , for a variety of potential types of emergent pathogen that cause outbreaks in wildlife. These analyses emphasize the sensitivity of R 0 to heterogeneities created by either the spatial structure of the host population, or the ability of the pathogens to utilize multiple host species. At each stage we illustrate how the approach provides insight into the initial dynamics of emergent pathogens such as canine parvovirus, Lyme disease, and West Nile virus in the United States.

The sixth mass coextinction: are most endangered species parasites and mutualists?

“…In rare hosts, we speculate that losses of specialist parasites may predispose hosts to infection by their generalist competitors or emergent parasites. In line with our speculation, most of the cases in which diseases have caused significant mortality in rare species are attributable to generalist rather than specialist parasites (Dobson & Foufopoulos 2001;Gog et al 2002;de Castro & Bolker 2005). While we know of no clear examples in which the prevalence of the generalist disease or parasite can be directly linked to the absence of the specialist, the mere possibility of such cases should give pause to thought to those actively removing parasites from captive rare species.…”

From the discovery of the Malta fever?s agent to the discovery of a marine mammal reservoir, brucellosis has continuously been a re-emerging zoonosis

“…Wildlife brucellosis is a political issue: the livestock, hunting and game farming industries, and those involved in wildlife conservation and welfare, have conflicting interests [31,75]. Moreover, wildlife brucellosis represents a potential zoonotic threat [60].…”

Finding Them Before They Find Us: Informatics, Parasites, and Environments in Accelerating Climate Change

“…Parasites occupy a central role in efforts to develop proactive protocols for monitoring changes in ecosystem structure and for detecting the potential for emerging disease in resident and colonizing host species, be they human, livestock, or wildlife (Daszak et al, 2000;Brooks and Hoberg, 2006, 2008Patz et al, 2008;Agosta et al, 2010;Hoberg, 2010;Weaver et al, 2010;Hartigan et al, 2012;Altizer et al, 2013;Hoberg and Brooks, 2013). Parasites, especially those with specialized transmission dynamics, including complex life cycles, are not only agents of disease in humans, food-animal resources, crops, and wildlife, they are also powerful representations of the ecological and historical context of the diseases they cause (Dobson and Hudson, 1986;Dobson and May, 1986a, b;Dobson and Carper, 1992;Hoberg, 1997;Dobson and Foufopoulos, 2001;Marcogliese, 2001Marcogliese, , 2005Nieberding and Olivieri, 2007;Hoberg and Brooks, 2008;Rosenthal, 2008;Lafferty, 2009;Kilpatrick, 2011;Kuris, 2012). This is especially true for eukaryotic parasites.…”