User:Smruc/Disease ecology

= Disease Ecology = Disease ecology is a sub-discipline of ecology concerned with the mechanisms, patterns, and effects of host-pathogen interactions, particularly those of infectious diseases, within the context of environmental factors. Further, it examines how parasites spread through and influence wildlife populations and communities .By studying the flow of diseases within the natural environment, scientists seek to better understand how changes within our environment can shape how pathogens, and other diseases, travel. Therefore, diseases ecology seeks to understand the links between ecological interactions and disease evolution. New emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases (infecting both wildlife and humans) are increasing at unprecedented rates which can have lasting impacts on public health, ecosystem health, and biodiversity.



Factors Affecting Spread of Diseases
Parasitic infections, along with certain transmitted diseases, are present in wildlife which can have severe health effects on particular individuals and populations. Constant host-parasite interactions make disease ecology critical in conservation ecology.

Ecological Factors
Ecological factors that can determine the persistence and the spread of diseases are population size, density, and composition. Host population size is important in the context of host-parasite interactions since the spread of diseases needs a host population large enough to sustain parasitic interactions. The health of the overall population (and the size of the weakened population members) will also influence the way that parasites and diseases will transmit among members. Additionally, competition and predation dynamics in the ecosystem can influence the density of potential hosts which can either propagate or limit the spread of diseases.

Biological Factors
Biological factors that can determine the persistence of diseases include parameters pertaining at the level of the individual within the population (one single organism). Sex differences are found to be prevalent in disease transmission. For example, male American minks are larger and travel wider distances, making them more prone to come into contact with parasites and diseases. The host species age may additionally affect the rate in which diseases are transmitted. Younger members of populations have yet to acquire heard immunity and are therefore more susceptible to parasitic infections.

Anthropogenic Factors
Anthropogenic factors of disease spread can be through the introduction or translocation of wildlife for conservation purposes by humans. Additionally, human activity is changing the way in which diseases move through the natural environment.

In Relation to Anthropogenic Factors
Humans are strongly impacting how diseases spread by creating what is known as "novel species associations". Globalization, mainly through world travel and trade, has created a system in which pathogens, and other species, are more in contact with one another than before. Ecological disruption, including habitat fragmentation and road construction, degrade natural landscapes and have been studied as drivers of recent emergence and re-emergence of infectious diseases worldwide. Scientists have speculated that habitat destruction and biodiversity loss are some of the main reasons influencing the rapid spread of non-human, disease carrying vectors. The loss of predators that mitigate the ability for pathogen transmission can increase the rate of disease transmission. Human anthropogenic induced climate change is becoming problematic as parasites and their associated diseases can move to higher latitudes with increasing global temperatures. New diseases can therefore infect populations that were previously never in contact with certain pathogens.

Urbanization and Biodiversity Loss
Urbanization is considered one of the main land-use changes, defined as the growth in the area and number of people inhabiting cities and creates artificial landscapes of built-up structures for human use. With over 65% of the global human population living in cities by 2025, ecological impacts of urbanization focuses mainly on biodiversity loss defined as the decline in species richness. With empirical evidence, scientists are understanding that biodiversity loss is associated with increased disease transmission and worsening of disease severity for humans, wildlife, and certain plant species. As biodiversity is lost worldwide, it is often times the larger, slower reproducing animal species that will go extinct first. This leaves smaller, more adaptable, fast reproducing species abundant .Research has shown that these smaller species are more likely the ones to carry and transmit pathogens (key examples include bats, rats, and mice).

Invasive Species
Globalization, including world trade and travel, has facilitated the spread of non-native (invasive) species worldwide. Newly introduced invasive species have the ability to alter ecological dynamics through local and regional extinction of native species. This can promote changes to the ecosystem including the shift in abundance and richness of native species. New invasive species, and the diseases they potentially carry, can escape into the environment and alter the existing natural ecosystems and the ecosystem services that people are dependent upon, including water quality and nutrient availability.

Habitat Fragmentation
Encroachment on natural ecosystems and wildlife with rapid urbanization exposes humans to a wide variety of disease carrying animals. Habitat fragmentation leads to increased edge effects and increases the the contact between different communities, vectors, and pathogens which can increase disease transmission. It is argued that between 2013-2015, the Ebola virus disease (EDB) outbreak in West Africa began due to deforestation and habitat degradation. In this case, frugivorous and insectivorous bat species had less forest serving as a barrier between them and dense human settlements. Transmission of the Ebola virus is believed to have occurred through direct contact with bat species carrying the pathogen and humans, encroaching on natural ecosystems.

Climate Change
Scientists have deemed vector borne diseases to be sensitive to changes in weather and climate. The abundance of disease carrying vectors in the environment depends on multiple factors, including temperature, relative humidity, and water availability, all factors necessary for the reproductive processes and success of disease carrying vectors. Climate change predictions include rising temperatures and changes in rainfall pattern which can create suitable habitats and increases the overall survival rate and fitness of pathogen carrying species by. With a warming climate, pathogens and parasites can begin shifting their native geographic ranges to higher latitudes and infect host species in which they have no prior interaction with. The shift in rainfall patterns can additionally indicate the presence of disease carrying vectors. For example, mosquitos spread diseases such as malaria and lymphatic filariasis. The distribution of lymphatic filariasis via mosquitos can be determined by looking at soil moisture content, an indicator of viable mosquito breeding habitat (as mosquito larvae need shallow, stagnant water to survive). As temperature and precipitation patterns change, so will soil moisture levels and the corresponding mosquito populations.

Malaria
Malaria is a disease transferred by the female Anopheles mosquito, located predominantly in sub-Saharan Africa and is a long withstanding public health issue. It is a disease that is strongly regulated by climate factors and therefore climate change will have a notable impact on the transmission of the disease. As temperatures warm, the reproductive phase of the Plasmodium parasite, within the gut of the female mosquito, will undergo completion. This will ensure that the female mosquito becomes infective before the end of its lifespan. Precipitation is also a critical factor for the breeding and the transmission of malaria and with climate change influencing regular precipitation patterns, studies are finding that mosquito breeding potential can increase as a direct result of climate change.

Lyme Disease
Lyme disease is the most common tickborne disease throughout the United States and Europe with an estimated 476,000 cases in Europe and 200,000 cases in the United States per year. Recently, studies have concluded that there is an increased risk of Lyme disease in Southern Canada due to the home range expansion of the tick vector Ixodes scapularis, which is responsible for carrying the disease. Climate change creates milder winters and extended Spring and Autumn seasons. This creates hospitable habitats for ticks thrive at higher latitudes (where they are normally not found). Human infections of Lyme disease have been increasingly prominent in certain southern parts of Canadian provinces such as Ontario, Quebec, Manitoba, and Nova Scotia. According to Canadian published studies, other environmental factors are contributing to the expansion of the Ixodes scapularis home range which include the introduction of the vector through migratory birds and density of deer populations.

West Nile Virus
West Nile Virus is transferred between mosquitos and birds of prey including eagles, hawks, falcons, and owls. In the Unites States, West Nile Virus is being increasingly studied in New York and Connecticut due to the effects of climate change on two disease carrying vectors. Climate change is promoting the hybridization amongst two mosquito vectors (Cx. pipens and Cx. quinquefasciatus) which can have an effect on the genetic composition of the hybrid allowing it to become more effective at transmitting diseases and increases its adaptability to different climactic conditions.