Disease Ecology / Epidemiology

Many infectious diseases of recent concern, including malaria, cholera, plague, and Lyme disease, have emerged from complex ecological communities involving multiple hosts and their associated parasites. Several of these diseases appear to be influenced by human impacts on the environment, for example intensive agriculture, clear-cut forestry, and habitat loss, and fragmentation. Such environmental impacts may affect many species at trophic levels below or above the host community. Thus, the prevalence of both human and wildlife diseases may alter in unanticipated ways as a result of changes in the structure and composition of ecological communities. This book highlights exciting advances in theoretical and empirical research aimed towards a better understanding of the importance of community structure in the emergence of infectious diseases. To date, research on host-parasite systems has tended to explore only a limited set of community interactions, and little effort has been devoted to addressing complications, such as multiple-host-multiple-parasite systems; sequential hosts acting on different trophic levels; alternate hosts with spatially varying interactions; or stochastic effects resulting from small population size in at least one alternate host species. The chapters in this book illustrate aspects of community ecology that influence pathogen transmission rates and disease dynamics in a wide variety of study systems. It communicates a clear message: studies of epidemiology can be approached from the perspective of community ecology, and students of community ecology can contribute significantly to epidemiology.

This book describes the remarkable progress which has been made in defining the extent and nature of human genetic variation, and its many consequences for us as individuals and in understanding human origins. A mix of cutting-edge and landmark studies are reviewed to provide an overview of the field combined with in-depth analysis of specific informative examples to show how progress has been achieved and likely future directions. The major classes of genetic variation are described, ranging from chromosomal level variation, to submicroscopic structural variation, to fine scale sequence level variation. The substantial progress achieved in defining the genetic basis of diseases is described for both diseases showing Mendelian inheritance and common multifactorial diseases. Efforts to catalogue human genetic variation, insights into genomic disorders, the role of copy number variation, segmental duplications and tandem repeats are highlighted together with progress which has lead to recent success with genome-wide association studies. Other chapters highlight the genetics of gene expression, evidence of selection and susceptibility to diseases such as malaria and HIV infection. Human genetic variation has implications across a broad range of disciplines and this text aims to consolidate work in diverse fields to highlight common themes and principles. To facilitate this the basic principles of human molecular genetics are described throughout the text, which is extensively illustrated.

Recent progress in the field of wildlife disease ecology demonstrates that infectious disease plays a crucial role in the lives of wild animals. Parasites and pathogens should be especially important for social animals in which high contact among individuals increases the potential for disease spread. As one of the best studied mammalian groups, primates offer a unique opportunity to examine how complex behaviours (including social organization) influence the risk of acquiring infectious diseases, and the defences used by animals to avoid infection. This book explores the correlates of disease risk in primates, including not only social and mating behaviour but also diet, habitat use, life history, geography and phylogeny. The authors examine how a core set of host and parasite traits influence patterns of parasitism at three levels of biological organization: among individuals, among populations, and across species. A major goal is to synthesize, for the first time, four disparate areas of research: primate behavioural ecology, parasite biology, wildlife epidemiology, and the behavioural and immune defences employed by animals to counter infectious disease. Throughout, the authors provide an overview of the remarkable diversity of infectious agents found in wild primate populations. Additional chapters consider how knowledge of infectious diseases in wild primates can inform efforts focused on primate conservation and human health. More generally, this book identifies infectious disease as an important frontier in our understanding of primate behaviour and ecology. It highlights future challenges for testing the links between host and parasite traits, including hypotheses for the effects of disease on primate social and mating systems.

Under continual attack from both microbial pathogens and multicellular parasites, insects must cope with immune challenges every day of their lives. However, this has not prevented them from becoming the most successful group of animals on the planet. Insects possess highly-developed innate immune systems which have been fine-tuned by an arms race with pathogens spanning hundreds of millions of years of evolutionary history. Recent discoveries are revealing both an unexpected degree of specificity and an indication of immunological memory — the functional hallmark of vertebrate immunity. The study of insect immune systems has accelerated rapidly in recent years and is now becoming an important interdisciplinary field. Furthermore, insects are a phenomenally rich and diverse source of antimicrobial chemicals. Some of these are already being seriously considered as potential therapeutic agents to control microbes such as MRSA. This book provides a coherent synthesis and is structured around two broadly themed sections: mechanisms of immunity and evolutionary ecology. This text adopts an interdisciplinary and concept-driven approach, integrating insights from immunology, molecular biology, ecology, evolutionary biology, parasitology, and epidemiology.

Ecologists, epidemiologists, and evolutionary biologists are increasingly aware of the significance of parasites in the study of ecosystems. This book provides a summary of the issues involved as well as an overview of the possibilities offered by this research topic, using well-documented case-studies to illustrate the main trends and prospects in this area. This is the first book devoted to the comprehension of both the roles and consequences of pathogens in ecosystems.

Recent scandals and controversies—such as the falsification, fabrication, and plagiarism of data in federally funded science; the manipulation and distortion of research sponsored by private companies; human embryonic stem cell research; cloning; and the patenting of DNA and cell lines—illustrate the importance of ethics in scientific research. This book provides an introduction and overview of many of the social, ethical, and legal issues facing scientists today. The book includes chapters on research misconduct, conflicts of interest, data management, mentoring, authorship, peer review, publication, intellectual property, research with human subjects, research with animal subjects, genetic and stem cell research, international research, and ethical decision making. The book also features dozens of real and hypothetical cases for discussion and analysis and introduces the reader to important research regulations and guidelines. Now in its second edition, this book synthesizes the diverse talents and experiences. This second edition of this book includes new chapters and cases and has been brought up to date on the latest issues and problems in research ethics.

The sudden appearance and rapid spread of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in 2003 alerted the world to the fact that emerging infections are a global problem. Living in affluent societies with well-developed healthcare systems does not necessarily protect people from the dangers posed by life-threatening infections. The SARS epidemic tested global preparedness for dealing with a new infectious agent and raised important questions: How did we do, and what did we learn? This book uses the SARS outbreak as a case study to enumerate the generic issues that must be considered when planning the control of emerging infections. Emerging infections are more than just a current biological fashion: the bitter ongoing experience of AIDS and the looming threat of pandemic influenza teach us that the control of infectious disease is a problem that has not been solved. Scientists from a broad range of disciplines — biologists, veterinarians, physicians, and policy makers — all need to prepare. But prepare for what? The book provides an overview of the tasks that must be addressed by a community that wishes to confront emerging infections. While focusing on SARS, the book addresses a whole range of considerations and issues, from the use of new mathematical models to account for the spread of infection across global airline networks, to a discussion of the ethics of quarantining individuals in order to protect communities.

This book provides an overview of the use of spatial statistics in epidemiology — the study of the incidence and distribution of diseases. Used appropriately, spatial analytical methods in conjunction with GIS and remotely sensed data can provide significant insights into the biological patterns and processes that underlie disease transmission. In turn, these can be used to understand and predict disease prevalence. This book brings together the specialised and widely-dispersed literature on spatial analysis to make these methodological tools accessible to epidemiologists for the first time. With its focus on application rather than theory, this book includes examples taken from both medical (human) and veterinary (animal) disciplines, and describes both infectious diseases and non-infectious conditions. It also provides worked examples of methodologies using a single data set from the same disease example throughout, and is structured to follow the logical sequence of description of spatial data, visualisation, exploration, modelling, and decision support.