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Disease ecology

Disease Ecology Compared with Epidemiology

The focus of epidemiology is to identify factors causing disease and control them, especially concerning public health (Forrest 2019). Disease ecology focuses on the interactions between a pathogen, its host and any other organisms involved in the dynamics of the pathogen. Unlike epidemiology, disease ecology aims to observe a communicable disease’s function in an ecosystem rather than aiming to determine how to treat or prevent a disease (Ostfeld et al. 2008).

Complex life cycles of pathogens involve the life histories multiple organisms

Diseases originating in wildlife and transferred to humans involve at least 4 organisms: a wildlife reservoir, the pathogen, a vector, and the human host. In the case of lime disease, at least 6 organisms are involved because a tick has three stages during which it feeds on blood from separate hosts. In this way observing the life history of each organism involved with a pathogen is important for determining its dynamics in a community (Collinge and Ray 2006).