Disease ecology Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
2025, Emerging Infectious Diseases
2025, Journal of Entomology and Zoology studies
The aim of this study is to determine the distribution and abundance of Aedes sp. Mosquitoes in Barkatullah University, Bhopal. Methods: Ovitraps were randomly placed in the university campus. The sampling was completed after 10... more
The aim of this study is to determine the distribution and abundance of Aedes sp. Mosquitoes in Barkatullah University, Bhopal. Methods: Ovitraps were randomly placed in the university campus. The sampling was completed after 10 independent trips. For each trip 30 ovitraps were installed and recovered after 7 days, but they all are examined daily from the next day of installation. Results: The mixed infestation of Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus was observed in campus area. The abundance of Aedes population was indicated by Ovitrap index (OI) which ranged from 40%-89.28% and the Mean number of larvae per ovitrap which ranged from 3. 35-10.60. In this study, ovitrap data indicated Ae. albopictus were dominant species in all the trips compared to Ae. aegypti populations. Although the presence of Aedes aegypti population ranged from 16.07%-24.48%, whereas the presence of Aedes albopictus population ranged from 75.51%-83.92%. Conclusion: This study indicates that ovitrap is a sensitive, fast, more efficient tool to attract gravid females of mosquitoes to oviposit, and also to detect the presence of Aedes mosquitoes as compared to larval survey.
2025, Dynamis: Acta Hispanica ad Medicinae Scientiarumque Historiam Illustrandam
This paper offers a periodization of the history of plague in Brazil. It is based on the ways in which experts and public health officers framed the disease, the elements they considered responsible for its spread, and changes in these... more
This paper offers a periodization of the history of plague in Brazil. It is based on the ways in which experts and public health officers framed the disease, the elements they considered responsible for its spread, and changes in these elements over time. In accordance with this periodization, the article first argues that the ecology of plague became progressively more complex in the 20th century, suggesting the rise of a more ecological-oriented view among Brazilian doctors. It then proposes that political and institutional transformations also shaped this intellectual change in the epidemiological reasoning about pla gue in Brazil. The periodization is divided into three phases. The first phase ex tends from 1897, with the start of discussions about the risk of plague arriving in Brazil from Asia, to 1920, with a substantial reduction in the number of plague cases in coastal cities. In this initial phase, the framing of the plague transitioned from a disease spread by humans and the objects they touched to one spread by rats and their fleas. The second phase, from 1920 to 1950, was characterized by the hegemony of rats in epidemiological explanations for the presence of plague in cities and rural areas of Brazil. The third and final phase, from 1951 to the early 1970s, was characterized by the progressive inclusion of wild rodents into scientific explanations for the spread and especially persistence of plague in some foci, mainly in the NorthEast. At the end of this phase, the scientific consensus in Brazil was that wild rodents constituted the main plague reservoir.
2025, Iranian Journal of Fisheries Sciences
2025, Iranian Journal of Fisheries Sciences
2025, Ecology Letters
Ecology Letters (2010) 13: 659–674Analytical methods accounting for imperfect detection are often used to facilitate reliable inference in population and community ecology. We contend that similar approaches are needed in disease ecology... more
Ecology Letters (2010) 13: 659–674Analytical methods accounting for imperfect detection are often used to facilitate reliable inference in population and community ecology. We contend that similar approaches are needed in disease ecology because these complicated systems are inherently difficult to observe without error. For example, wildlife disease studies often designate individuals, populations, or spatial units to states (e.g., susceptible, infected, post‐infected), but the uncertainty associated with these state assignments remains largely ignored or unaccounted for. We demonstrate how recent developments incorporating observation error through repeated sampling extend quite naturally to hierarchical spatial models of disease effects, prevalence, and dynamics in natural systems. A highly pathogenic strain of avian influenza virus in migratory waterfowl and a pathogenic fungus recently implicated in the global loss of amphibian biodiversity are used as motivating examples. Both...
2025, GSARJAVS182024-FT-Gelary-script
This review examines deforestation as a major anthropogenic-induced factor for emerging zoonotic diseases causing considerable pandemic signals with serious health, social and economic constraints. Forest destruction leads to increased... more
This review examines deforestation as a major anthropogenic-induced factor for emerging zoonotic diseases causing considerable pandemic signals with serious health, social and economic constraints. Forest destruction leads to increased contact between wildlife, domestic animals and humans, thereby increasing the risk of zoonosis transmission and global pandemics. Many of the emerging zoonotic diseases, such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Coronavirus), Ebola virus disease, Monkey pox virus, Nipah virus, Yellow fever, Zika virus, Lyme disease, Dengue fever, Cysticercosis, Avian influenza, Changas virus, Lassa fever, and Chikungunya, among others, have been discovered, and these diseases are emerging at a rate that has not been seen before, especially in the last 10 years. The potential for emerging zoonoses to spread rapidly and cause global pandemics is a major source of concern, hence the need for combating measures to deal with the challenges of deforestation and emerging zoonotic disease pandemics, including the implementation of laws and regulations, interdisciplinary collaboration, establishment of disease testing and reporting centers, awareness and surveillance, alternative sources of income, and establishment of essential projects and interventions for forest conservation and zoonosis emergence. These measures will reduce further pandemic signals and their consequences.
2025, International Journal for Parasitology
Hosts counteract infections using two distinct defence strategies, resistance (reduction in pathogen fit-31 ness) and tolerance (limitation of infection damage). These strategies have been minimally investigated 32 in multi-host systems,... more
Hosts counteract infections using two distinct defence strategies, resistance (reduction in pathogen fit-31 ness) and tolerance (limitation of infection damage). These strategies have been minimally investigated 32 in multi-host systems, where they may vary across host species, entailing consequences both for hosts 33 (virulence) and parasites (transmission). Comprehending the interplay among resistance, tolerance, vir-34 ulence and parasite success is highly relevant for our understanding of the ecology and evolution of infec-35 tious and parasitic diseases. Our work investigated the interaction between an insect parasite and its 36 most common bird host species, focusing on two relevant questions: (i) are defence strategies different 37 between main and alternative hosts and, (ii) what are the consequences (virulence and parasite success) 38 of different defence strategies? We conducted a matched field experiment and longitudinal studies at the 39 host and the parasite levels under natural conditions, using a system comprising Philornis torquans flies 40 and three bird hosts -the main host and two of the most frequently used alternative hosts. We found that 41 main and alternative hosts have contrasting defence strategies, which gave rise in turn to contrasting vir-42 ulence and parasite success. In the main bird host, minor loss of fitness, no detectable immune response, 43 and high parasite success suggest a strategy of high tolerance and negligible resistance. Alternative hosts, 44 on the contrary, resisted by mounting inflammatory responses, although with very different efficiency, 45 which resulted in highly dissimilar parasite success and virulence. These results show clearly distinct 46 defence strategies between main and alternative hosts in a natural multi-host system. They also highlight 47 the importance of defence strategies in determining virulence and infection dynamics, and hint that 48 defence efficiency is a crucial intervening element in these processes. 49
2025, Frontiers in Veterinary Science
Disease ecology emphasizes how ecological interactions between microparasites (pathogenic microbes), macroparasites (helminths, protists), and animal hosts help understanding transmission of diseases and parasites within the... more
Disease ecology emphasizes how ecological interactions between microparasites (pathogenic microbes), macroparasites (helminths, protists), and animal hosts help understanding transmission of diseases and parasites within the epidemiological landscape. Diseases and parasites are ecological and evolutionary forces at all biological levels of organizations from organisms, populations, communities to ecosystems and there is an increasing interest to investigate them in an evolutionary ecological perspective. Integrating evolution, co-evolution into the ecology of transmission in a spatial context poses many challenges. To tackle these challenges disease ecologists use a wide varieties of methods and tools such as molecular approaches developed from pathogens screening, high-throughput technologies, population genetics, phylogenetics and phylogeography, quantitative epidemiology, population dynamics, theoretical epidemiology, spatial analyses, and landscape ecology. This special issue calls into presenting advances and identifying gaps in the disease ecology and evolutionary ecology of diseases, using wild mammals and their pathogenic bacteria, viruses, parasites, and vectors as so many models. This special issue is a collection of studies in disease ecology that contribute to Conservation Medicine (1) and One Health approaches (2). In two studies presented in this special issue, bats and their parasites, vectors, and microbes were investigated. Information on bats, bat flies (obligate hematophagous ectoparasites of bats) and their microparasites was synthesized by Szentiványi et al. Viruses, bacteria, blood protists, and fungi have been detected in bat flies that show physiological consequences on bats and their ectoparasites. The authors recommended additional studies to understand the interlinkages between bat hosts, ectoparasites, and their associated microparasites. McKee et al. examined Bartonella from European bats and their ectoparasites using network analysis, Bayesian phylogenetics, and tests on co-phylogenetic association. The authors were able to disentangle the processes, ecological, or evolutionary, that contribute to shape the interactive communities. Bat phylogeny and bat roost sharing help to explain the evolutionary patterns of vector-borne diseases. Carnivores and bacterial diseases were the topic of two studies. Kosoy and Goodrich reviewed published studies on the phylogenetic sister clades Bartonella and Brucella that infect wild carnivores to analyse and compare the ecology of these two clades of bacteria in closely related host species. Bartonella species were much reported in every sampled wild felid species, whereas
2025, Ecology and Evolution
The potential for disease transmission at the interface of wildlife, domestic animals and humans has become a major concern for public health and conservation biology. Research in this subject is commonly conducted at local scales while... more
The potential for disease transmission at the interface of wildlife, domestic animals and humans has become a major concern for public health and conservation biology. Research in this subject is commonly conducted at local scales while the regional context is neglected. We argue that prevalence of infection at local and regional levels is influenced by three mechanisms occurring at the landscape level in a metacommunity context. First, (1) dispersal, colonization, and extinction of pathogens, reservoir or vector hosts, and nonreservoir hosts, may be due to stochastic and niche-based processes, thus determining distribution of all species, and then their potential interactions, across local communities (metacommunity structure). Second, (2) anthropogenic processes may drive environmental filtering of hosts, nonhosts, and pathogens. Finally, (3) phylogenetic diversity relative to reservoir or vector host(s), within and between local communities may facilitate pathogen persistence and circulation. Using a metacommunity approach, public heath scientists may better evaluate the factors that predispose certain times and places for the origin and emergence of infectious diseases. The multidisciplinary approach we describe fits within a comprehensive One Health and Ecohealth framework addressing zoonotic infectious disease outbreaks and their relationship to their hosts, other animals, humans, and the environment.
2025, Pollution
Pakistan has the coastline of 990 km, rapid industrialization and economic growth have resulted in increased water pollution in the coastal areas. Present study characterized natural and xenobiotic elements in the shells of molluscs and... more
Pakistan has the coastline of 990 km, rapid industrialization and economic growth have resulted in increased water pollution in the coastal areas. Present study characterized natural and xenobiotic elements in the shells of molluscs and crustaceans found along the coastline of Pakistan. The objective of this study was to highlight the scope of these shells to be used as bio-indicators or nutrient source, instead of getting waste after seasonal washed up along the coastline.These washed up shell were collected from 09 locations in year the 2023 and were analyzed through scanning electron microscopy energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy and atomic absorption spectrometry. This study presented a comprehensive elemental and morphological analysis of the selected species' shells, which hasn't been reported earlier. The mass percentages of elements were compared by one-way ANOVA, among species. Results suggested that these shells can also be used as bio-indicator for those elements whose toxicity is usually ignored, such as Al. Silicon and aluminum showed similar trend among species in mass percentages i.e., Mussel>Crab>S-callop>Clam>Shrimp. Variation in levels of elements in natural shell composition may influence the attachment of xenobiotic metals. While, this study also reflected shells that could be used as a nutrient source. Water pH was found to be an influencing factor on the solubility of elements. The morphological analysis of shells helped in understanding the transport of organic and inorganic materials between the body and shell.
2025, PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases
Background: Aedes albopictus is an invasive species which continues expanding its geographic range and involvement in mosquito-borne diseases such as chikungunya and dengue. Host selection patterns by invasive mosquitoes are critically... more
Background: Aedes albopictus is an invasive species which continues expanding its geographic range and involvement in mosquito-borne diseases such as chikungunya and dengue. Host selection patterns by invasive mosquitoes are critically important because they increase endemic disease transmission and drive outbreaks of exotic pathogens. Traditionally, Ae. albopictus has been characterized as an opportunistic feeder, primarily feeding on mammalian hosts but occasionally acquiring blood from avian sources as well. However, limited information is available on their feeding patterns in temperate regions of their expanded range. Because of the increasing expansion and abundance of Ae. albopictus and the escalating diagnoses of exotic pathogens in travelers returning from endemic areas, we investigated the host feeding patterns of this species in newly invaded areas to further shed light on its role in disease ecology and assess the public health threat of an exotic arbovirus outbreak. Methodology/Principal Findings: We identified the vertebrate source of 165 blood meals in Ae. albopictus collected between 2008 and 2011 from urban and suburban areas in northeastern USA. We used a network of Biogents Sentinel traps, which enhance Ae. albopictus capture counts, to conduct our collections of blooded mosquitoes. We also analyzed blooded Culex mosquitoes collected alongside Ae. albopictus in order to examine the composition of the community of blood sources. We found no evidence of bias since as expected Culex blood meals were predominantly from birds (n = 149, 93.7%) with only a small proportion feeding on mammals (n = 10, 6.3%). In contrast, Aedes albopictus fed exclusively on mammalian hosts with over 90% of their blood meals derived from humans (n = 96, 58.2%) and domesticated pets (n = 38, 23.0% cats; and n = 24, 14.6% dogs). Aedes albopictus fed from humans significantly more often in suburban than in urban areas (x 2 , p = 0.004) and cat-derived blood meals were greater in urban habitats (x 2 , p = 0.022). Avian-derived blood meals were not detected in any of the Ae. albopictus tested. Conclusions/Significance: The high mammalian affinity of Ae. albopictus suggests that this species will be an efficient vector of mammal-and human-driven zoonoses such as La Crosse, dengue, and chikungunya viruses. The lack of blood meals obtained from birds by Ae. albopictus suggest that this species may have limited exposure to endemic avian zoonoses such as St. Louis encephalitis and West Nile virus, which already circulate in the USA. However, growing populations of Ae. albopictus in major metropolitan urban and suburban centers, make a large autochthonous outbreak of an arbovirus such as chikungunya or dengue viruses a clear and present danger. Given the difficulties of Ae. albopictus suppression, we recommend that public health practitioners and policy makers install proactive measures for the imminent mitigation of an exotic pathogen outbreak.
2025, Malaria Journal
Background: Endemic malaria in Thailand continues to only exist along international borders. This pattern is frequently attributed to importation of malaria from surrounding nations. A microgeographical approach was used to investigate... more
Background: Endemic malaria in Thailand continues to only exist along international borders. This pattern is frequently attributed to importation of malaria from surrounding nations. A microgeographical approach was used to investigate malaria cases in a study village along the Thailand-Myanmar border. Methods: Three mass blood surveys were conducted during the study period (July and December 2011, and May 2012) and were matched to a cohort-based demographic surveillance system. Blood slides and filter papers were taken from each participant. Slides were cross-verified by an expert microscopist and filter papers were analysed using nested PCR. Cases were then mapped to households and analysed using spatial statistics. A risk factor analysis was done using mixed effects logistic regression. Results: In total, 55 Plasmodium vivax and 20 Plasmodium falciparum cases (out of 547 participants) were detected through PCR, compared to six and two (respectively) cases detected by field microscopy. The single largest risk factor for infection was citizenship. Many study participants were ethnic Karen people with no citizenship in either Thailand or Myanmar. This subpopulation had over eight times the odds of malaria infection when compared to Thai citizens. Cases also appeared to cluster near a major drainage system and year-round water source within the study village. Conclusion: This research indicates that many cases of malaria remain undiagnosed in the region. The spatial and demographic clustering of cases in a sub-group of the population indicates either transmission within the Thai village or shared exposure to malaria vectors outside of the village. While it is possible that malaria is imported to Thailand from Myanmar, the existence of undetected infections, coupled with an ecological setting that is conducive to malaria transmission, means that indigenous transmission could also occur on the Thai side of the border. Improved, timely, and active case detection is warranted.
2025, The Science of Nature
Nutrient availability is predicted to interact with herbivore population densities. Competition for low quality food at high density may reduce summer food intake, and in turn winter survival. Conversely, low population density may favor... more
Nutrient availability is predicted to interact with herbivore population densities. Competition for low quality food at high density may reduce summer food intake, and in turn winter survival. Conversely, low population density may favor physiological recovery through better access to better quality spring forage. Here, we take advantage of the longterm study of the Soay sheep population of St. Kilda (Scotland) to measure plasma protein markers and immunity in two consecutive summers with contrasting population densities. We show that, following a winter die-off resulting in a shift to low population density, albumin and total proteins increased, but only in adult sheep. The effect was not solely attributable to selective disappearance of malnourished sheep. Similarly, the concentration of antibodies was higher following the die-off, potentially indicating recovery of immune function. Overall, our results are consistent with the physiological recovery of surviving individuals after a harsh winter.
2025, Trends in Parasitology
Sleep is a phenomenon conserved across the animal kingdom, where studies on Drosophila melanogaster have revealed that sleep phenotypes and molecular underpinnings are similar to those in mammals. However, little is known about sleep in... more
Sleep is a phenomenon conserved across the animal kingdom, where studies on Drosophila melanogaster have revealed that sleep phenotypes and molecular underpinnings are similar to those in mammals. However, little is known about sleep in blood-feeding arthropods, which have a critical role in public health as disease vectors. Specifically, sleep studies in mosquitoes are lacking despite considerable focus on how circadian processes, which have a central role in regulating sleep/wake cycles, impact activity, feeding, and immunity. Here, we review observations that suggest sleep-like states likely occur in mosquitoes and discuss the potential role of sleep in relation to mosquito biology and their ability to function as disease vectors.
2025, Ecology and Evolution
The Cordillera Vilcanota in southern Peru is the second largest glacierized range in the tropics and home to one of the largest high‐alpine lakes, Sibinacocha (4,860 m). Here, Telmatobius marmoratus (marbled water frog), Rhinella... more
The Cordillera Vilcanota in southern Peru is the second largest glacierized range in the tropics and home to one of the largest high‐alpine lakes, Sibinacocha (4,860 m). Here, Telmatobius marmoratus (marbled water frog), Rhinella spinulosa (Andean toad), and Pleurodema marmoratum (marbled four‐eyed frog) have expanded their range vertically within the past century to inhabit newly formed ponds created by ongoing deglaciation. These anuran populations, geographically among the highest (5,200–5,400 m) recorded globally, are being impacted by the chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), and the disease it causes, chytridiomycosis. In this study, we report results from over a decade of monitoring these three anuran species, their habitat, and Bd infection status. Our observations reveal dynamic changes in habitat including ongoing rapid deglaciation (18.4 m/year widening of a corridor between retreating glaciers from 2005 to 2015), new pond formation, changes in vegetation in...
2025, Ecological Applications
Brucella abortus, the causative agent of bovine brucellosis, infects wildlife, cattle, and humans worldwide, but management of the disease is often hindered by the logistics of controlling its prevalence in wildlife reservoirs. We used an... more
Brucella abortus, the causative agent of bovine brucellosis, infects wildlife, cattle, and humans worldwide, but management of the disease is often hindered by the logistics of controlling its prevalence in wildlife reservoirs. We used an individually based epidemiological model to assess the relative efficacies of three management interventions (sterilization, vaccination, and test-and-remove). The model was parameterized with demographic and epidemiological data from bison in Yellowstone National Park, USA. Sterilization and test-and-remove were most successful at reducing seroprevalence when they were targeted at young seropositive animals, which are the most likely age and sex category to be infectious. However, these approaches also required the most effort to implement. Vaccination was less effective (even with a perfect vaccine) but also required less effort to implement. For the treatment efforts we explored (50-100 individuals per year or 2.5-5% of the female population), sterilization had little impact upon the bison population growth rate when selectively applied. The population growth rate usually increased by year 25 due to the reduced number of Brucella-induced abortions. Initial declines in seroprevalence followed by rapid increases (.15% increase in 5 years) occurred in 3-13% of simulations with sterilization and test-and-remove, but not vaccination. We believe this is due to the interaction of superspreading events and the loss of herd immunity in the later stages of control efforts as disease prevalence declines. Sterilization provided a mechanism for achieving large disease reductions while simultaneously limiting population growth, which may be advantageous in some management scenarios. However, the field effort required to find the small segment of the population that is infectious rather than susceptible or recovered will likely limit the utility of this approach in many free-ranging wildlife populations. Nevertheless, we encourage scientists and policy makers to consider sterilization as part of a suite of available brucellosis management tools.
2025, Biological Conservation
Yellowstone bison (Bison bison bison) are managed to reduce the risk of brucellosis (Brucella abortus) transmission to cattle while allowing some migration out of Yellowstone National Park to winter ranges in Montana. Intensive management... more
Yellowstone bison (Bison bison bison) are managed to reduce the risk of brucellosis (Brucella abortus) transmission to cattle while allowing some migration out of Yellowstone National Park to winter ranges in Montana. Intensive management near conservation area boundaries maintained separation between bison and cattle, with no transmission of brucellosis. However, brucellosis prevalence in the bison population was not reduced and the management plan underestimated bison abundance, distribution, and migration, which contributed to larger risk management culls (total >3000 bison) than anticipated. Culls differentially affected breeding herds and altered gender structure, created reduced female cohorts, and dampened productivity. The ecological future of plains bison could be significantly enhanced by resolving issues of disease and social tolerance for Yellowstone bison so that their unique wild state and adaptive capabilities can be used to synergize the restoration of the species. We recommend several adaptive management adjustments that could be implemented to enhance the conservation of plains bison and reduce brucellosis infection. These findings and recommendations are pertinent to wood bison (Bison bison athabascae), European bison (Bison bonasus), and other large ungulates worldwide that are managed using best practices within a risk framework.
2025, Ecological Monographs
The bison (Bison bison) of the Yellowstone ecosystem, USA, exemplify the difficulty of conserving large mammals that migrate across the boundaries of conservation areas. Bison are infected with brucellosis (Brucella abortus) and their... more
The bison (Bison bison) of the Yellowstone ecosystem, USA, exemplify the difficulty of conserving large mammals that migrate across the boundaries of conservation areas. Bison are infected with brucellosis (Brucella abortus) and their seasonal movements can expose livestock to infection. Yellowstone National Park has embarked on a program of adaptive management of bison, which requires a model that assimilates data to support management decisions. We constructed a Bayesian state‐space model to reveal the influence of brucellosis on the Yellowstone bison population. A frequency‐dependent model of brucellosis transmission was superior to a density‐dependent model in predicting out‐of‐sample observations of horizontal transmission probability. A mixture model including both transmission mechanisms converged on frequency dependence. Conditional on the frequency‐dependent model, brucellosis median transmission rate was 1.87 yr−1. The median of the posterior distribution of the basic repr...
2025, PLOS ONE
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is an important cause of multi-drug-resistant infections in people, particularly indigent populations. MRSA can be transmitted between people and domestic animals, but the potential for... more
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is an important cause of multi-drug-resistant infections in people, particularly indigent populations. MRSA can be transmitted between people and domestic animals, but the potential for transmission between people and commensal pests, particularly rodents, had not been investigated. The objective of this study was to identify the presence and characterize the ecology of MRSA in rats (Rattus spp.) from in an impoverished, inner-city neighborhood. Oropharyngeal swabs were collected from rats trapped in 33 city blocks and one location within the adjacent port. Bacterial culture was performed and MRSA isolates were characterized using a variety of methods, including whole-genome sequencing (WGS). The ecology of MRSA in rats was described using phylogenetic analysis, geospatial analysis, and generalized linear mixed models. MRSA was identified 22 of 637 (3.5%) rats tested, although prevalence varied from 0 -50% among blocks. Isolates belonged to 4 clusters according to WGS, with the largest cluster (n = 10) containing isolates that were genetically indistinguishable from community-acquired USA300 MRSA strains isolated from people within the study area. MRSA strains demonstrated both geographic clustering and dispersion. The odds of an individual rat carrying MRSA increased with increased body fat (OR = 2.53, 95% CI = 1.33 -4.82), and in the winter (OR = 5.29, 95% CI = 1.04 -26.85) and spring (OR = 5.50, 95% CI = 1.10 -27.58) compared to the fall. The results show that urban rats carried the same MRSA lineages occurring in local human and/or animal populations, supporting recent transmission from external sources. MRSA carriage was influenced by season, most likely as a result of temporal variation in rat behavior and rat-human interactions.
2025, Proceedings of The Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
An increased susceptibility to disease is one hypothesis explaining how inbreeding hastens extinction in island endemics and threatened species. Experimental studies show that disease resistance declines as inbreeding increases, but data... more
An increased susceptibility to disease is one hypothesis explaining how inbreeding hastens extinction in island endemics and threatened species. Experimental studies show that disease resistance declines as inbreeding increases, but data from in situ wildlife systems are scarce. Genetic diversity increases with island size across the entire range of an extremely inbred Gala ´pagos endemic bird, providing the context for a natural experiment examining the effects of inbreeding on disease susceptibility. Extremely inbred populations of Gala ´pagos hawks had higher parasite abundances than relatively outbred populations. We found a significant island effect on constitutively produced natural antibody (NAb) levels and inbred populations generally harboured lower average and less variable NAb levels than relatively outbred populations. Furthermore, NAb levels explained abundance of amblyceran lice, which encounter the host immune system. This is the first study linking inbreeding, innate immunity and parasite load in an endemic, in situ wildlife population and provides a clear framework for assessment of disease risk in a Gala ´pagos endemic.
2024
In 1987, the Bison Control Area (BCA) program was established to reduce the risk of contact between healthy free-ranging bison (Bison bison) herds in the Northwest Territories and those bison in and around Wood Buffalo National Park... more
In 1987, the Bison Control Area (BCA) program was established to reduce the risk of contact between healthy free-ranging bison (Bison bison) herds in the Northwest Territories and those bison in and around Wood Buffalo National Park (WBNP) which are infected with bovine tuberculosis (Mycobacterium bovis) and brucellosis (Brucella abortus). In this paper, I summarize the main results of this surveillance program since its inception. I also review recent data on health status of the Mackenzie wood bison herd and then outline issues and considerations for the future of the BCA program. Since diseased bison in and around WBNP represent a continued threat of disease exposure to healthy bison in the Mackenzie and Nahanni herds, my principle recommendation is to continue the BCA and maintain surveillance in the buffer zone. v
2024
Pakistan provided asylum to approximately 4.2 million during and after Cold War refugees. They were settled in 386 refugee camps mostly in rural as well as in urban areas of the country. But the most populous province that had large... more
Pakistan provided asylum to approximately 4.2 million during and after Cold War refugees. They were settled in 386 refugee camps mostly in rural as well as in urban areas of the country. But the most populous province that had large number of Afghan refugees was Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) (that time N.W.F.P), which has long border (Durand line), and also has cultural, religious, and linguistics ties with Afghanistan. This large number of refugees generated grave consequences for Pakistan, especially for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. They have affected the socioeconomic and political life of the province. The main objective of this paper was to find out the socioeconomic impact of Afghan Refugees living for more than three decades in the host society of KP. An empirical and analytical methodological approach was adopted for this study. To findings reveals that Afghan Refugees have not only affected the social setup but also the economy of the local host society by introducing various type of social evils like begging, drugs culture, Kalashnikov culture (AK-47), Galemjum culture (prostitution) and corruption. Also these refugees and their animals have impacted the ecological balance causing desertification and consequent soil erosion. The refugees have also promoted drug trafficking, illegal trade of arms, smuggling, sectarianism and other endless Law and Order problems.
2024, Fungal Biology Reviews
Plants harbor a wide diversity of microorganisms in their tissues. Some of them have a long co-evolutionary history with their hosts, likely playing a pivotal role in regulating the plant interaction with other microbes such as pathogens.... more
Plants harbor a wide diversity of microorganisms in their tissues. Some of them have a long co-evolutionary history with their hosts, likely playing a pivotal role in regulating the plant interaction with other microbes such as pathogens. Some cool-season grasses are symbiotic with Epichloë fungal endophytes that grow symptomless and systemically in aboveground tissues. Among the many benefits that have been ascribed to endophytes, their role in mediating plant interactions with pathogens has been scarcely developed. Here, we explored the effects of Epichloë fungal endophytes on the interaction of host grasses with fungal pathogens. We made a meta-analysis that covered a total of 18 host grass species, 11 fungal endophyte species, and 22 fungal pathogen species. We observed endophyte-mediated negative effects on pathogens in vitro and in planta. Endophyte negative effects on pathogens were apparent not only in laboratory but also in greenhouse and field experiments. Epichloë fungal endophytes had negative effects on pathogen growth and conidial germination. On living plants, endophytes reduced both severity and incidence of the disease as well as colonization and subsequent infection of seeds. Symbiosis with endophytes showed an inhibitory effect on debilitator and killer pathogens, but not on castrators, and this effect did not differ among biotrophic or necrotrophic lifestyles. We found that this protection can be direct through the production of fungistatic compounds or induction of plant defenses, and indirect associated with endophytegenerated changes in the abiotic or the biotic environment. Several mechanisms operate simultaneously and contribute differentially to the reduction of disease within grass populations.
2024, Ecology letters
Identifying drivers of infectious disease patterns and impacts at the broadest scales of organisation is one of the most crucial challenges for modern science, yet answers to many fundamental questions remain elusive. These include what... more
Identifying drivers of infectious disease patterns and impacts at the broadest scales of organisation is one of the most crucial challenges for modern science, yet answers to many fundamental questions remain elusive. These include what factors commonly facilitate transmission of pathogens to novel host species, what drives variation in immune investment among host species, and more generally what drives global patterns of parasite diversity and distribution? Here we consider how the perspectives and tools of macroecology, a field that investigates patterns and processes at broad spatial, temporal and taxonomic scales, are expanding scientific understanding of global infectious disease ecology. In particular, emerging approaches are providing new insights about scaling properties across all living taxa, and new strategies for mapping pathogen biodiversity and infection risk. Ultimately, macroecology is establishing a framework to more accurately predict global patterns of infectious...
2024, Journal of the Minnesota Academy of Science
The molluscs of o northwestern Minnesota lake were sampled using transects, a sampling frame, and SCUBA. The species sampled were: Amnicola limosa, Valvata tricarinata, Gyraulus parvus, Physa cf. P. gyrina, Helisoma anceps, H.... more
The molluscs of o northwestern Minnesota lake were sampled using transects, a sampling frame, and SCUBA. The species sampled were: Amnicola limosa, Valvata tricarinata, Gyraulus parvus, Physa cf. P. gyrina, Helisoma anceps, H. campanulata, Promenetus exacuous, Ferrissia para/le/a, Anodonta marginata, Lampsilis siliquoidea, and Sphaerium cf. S. striafum. The unionid clams, the adult Helisoma spp. and the Physa adults were associated with the absence of aquatic vegetation. Distinct associations of snail species were found with each plant association: G. parvus and V. tricarinata with the deep water Nitella opaco association, A. limosa and V. tricarinata with the mid-depth mixed macrophyte association, and H. anceps and Physa adults with the shallow water, rocky bottom macrophyte association. Two estimates of snail abundance were made for each depth. Neither proved very satisfactory, but they did indicate that snail abundance was related to the type and abundance of aquatic plants.
2024, Parasites & Vectors
Background: Urbanization can have profound effects on ecological interactions. For host-pathogen interactions, differences have been detected between urban and non-urban landscapes. However, host-pathogen interactions may also differ... more
Background: Urbanization can have profound effects on ecological interactions. For host-pathogen interactions, differences have been detected between urban and non-urban landscapes. However, host-pathogen interactions may also differ within highly heterogeneous, urbanized landscapes. We investigated differences in infection risk (i.e., probability of infection) within urbanized landscapes using the coyote (Canis latrans) and mosquito-borne nematode, Dirofilaria immitis (the causative agent for canine heartworm), as a case study. We focused on a coyote population in Chicago for which extensive behavioral and heartworm infection data has been collected between 2001 and 2016. Our objectives were to: (i) determine how onset and duration of the heartworm transmission season varied over the 16-year period and across the urban-suburban gradient; and (ii) investigate how heartworm infection risk in coyotes varied over the years, across the urban-suburban gradient, by coyote characteristics (e.g., age, sex, resident status), and coyote use of the urbanized landscape (e.g., use of urban areas, mosquito habitats). Results: While onset of the heartworm transmission season differed neither by year nor across the urban-suburban gradient, it was longer closer to the core of Chicago. Of the 315 coyotes sampled, 31.1% were infected with D. immitis. Older coyotes and coyotes sampled in later years (i.e., 2012-2016) were more likely to have heartworm. While coyote location in the urban-suburban gradient was not a significant predictor of infection, the proportion of urban land in coyote home ranges was. Importantly, the size and direction of this association varied by age class. For adults and pups, infection risk declined with urbanization, whereas for subadults it increased. Further, models had a higher predictive power when focusing on resident coyotes (and excluding transient coyotes). The proportion of mosquito habitat in coyote home ranges was not a significant predictor of infection. Our findings suggest that urbanization may affect host exposure to vectors of D. immitis, that risk of infection can vary within urbanized landscapes, and that urbanization-wildlife infection associations may only be detected for animals with certain characteristics (e.g., age class and resident status).
2024, Journal of Applied Ecology
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creat ive Commo ns Attri bution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
2024, Journal of Virology
Bunyaviruses are the largest known family of RNA viruses, infecting vertebrates, insects, and plants. Here we isolated three novel bunyaviruses from mosquitoes sampled in Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, and Uganda. The viruses define a highly... more
Bunyaviruses are the largest known family of RNA viruses, infecting vertebrates, insects, and plants. Here we isolated three novel bunyaviruses from mosquitoes sampled in Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, and Uganda. The viruses define a highly diversified monophyletic sister clade to all members of the genus Orthobunyavirus and are virtually equidistant to orthobunyaviruses and tospoviruses. Maximal amino acid identities between homologous putative proteins of the novel group and orthobunyaviruses ranged between 12 and 25%. The type isolates, tentatively named Herbert virus (HEBV), Taï virus (TAIV), and Kibale virus (KIBV), comprised genomes with L, M, and S segments of about 7.4 kb, 2.7 kb, and 1.1 kb, respectively. HEBV, TAIV, and KIBV encode the shortest bunyavirus M segments known and did not seem to encode NSs and NSm proteins but contained an elongated L segment with an ∼500-nucleotide (nt) insertion that shows no identity to other bunyaviruses. The viruses replicated to high titers ...
2024
Gary Thorgaard a *, George Bailey , David Williams , Donald Buhler , Stephen Kaattari , Sandra Ristow , John Hansen , James Winton , Jerri Bartholomew , James Nagler , Patrick Walsh , Matt Vijayan , Robert Devlin , Ronald Hardy , Kenneth... more
Gary Thorgaard a *, George Bailey , David Williams , Donald Buhler , Stephen Kaattari , Sandra Ristow , John Hansen , James Winton , Jerri Bartholomew , James Nagler , Patrick Walsh , Matt Vijayan , Robert Devlin , Ronald Hardy , Kenneth Overturf , William Young , Barrie Robison , Caird Rexroad III , Yniv Palti p , Bernie May, Scott LaPatra, Ruth Phillips, Linda Park, Takashi Sakamoto, Nobuaki Okamoto, Roy Danzmann, Fred Allendorf, Lars-Erik Holm, Robert Bogden , Patricia Iturra, Rene Guyomard, Yann Guiguen (addresses of authors provided at end of paper) Corresponding author. Tel.: 509-335-7438; Fax: 509-335-3184; Email : thorglab @ wsu.edu
2024, Ecological applications : a publication of the Ecological Society of America
Recent increases in emergent infectious diseases have raised concerns about the sustainability of some marine species. The complexity and expense of studying diseases in marine systems often dictate that conservation and management... more
Recent increases in emergent infectious diseases have raised concerns about the sustainability of some marine species. The complexity and expense of studying diseases in marine systems often dictate that conservation and management decisions are made without quantitative data on population-level impacts of disease. Mark-recapture is a powerful, underutilized, tool for calculating impacts of disease on population size and structure, even in the absence of etiological information. We applied logistic regression models to mark-recapture data to obtain estimates of disease-associated mortality rates in three commercially-important marine species: snow crab (Chionoecetes opilio) in Newfoundland, Canada, that experience sporadic epizootics of bitter crab disease; striped bass (Morone saxatilis) in the Chesapeake Bay, USA, that experience chronic dermal and visceral mycobacteriosis; and American lobster (Homarus americanus) in the Southern New England stock, that experience chronic epizoot...
2024, Ecology and Evolution
Migration can influence host–parasite dynamics in animals by increasing exposure to parasites, by reducing the energy available for immune defense, or by culling of infected individuals. These mechanisms have been demonstrated in several... more
Migration can influence host–parasite dynamics in animals by increasing exposure to parasites, by reducing the energy available for immune defense, or by culling of infected individuals. These mechanisms have been demonstrated in several comparative analyses; however, few studies have investigated whether conspecific variation in migration distance may also be related to infection risk. Here, we ask whether autumn migration distance, inferred from stable hydrogen isotope analysis of summer‐grown feathers (δ2Hf) in Europe, correlates with blood parasite prevalence and intensity of infection for willow warblers (Phylloscopus trochilus) wintering in Zambia. We also investigated whether infection was correlated with individual condition (assessed via corticosterone, scaled mass index, and feather quality). We found that 43% of birds were infected with Haemoproteus palloris (lineage WW1). Using generalized linear models, we found no relationship between migration distance and either Haem...
2024, Parasites & vectors
The tick Ixodes ricinus has considerable impact on the health of humans and other terrestrial animals because it transmits several tick-borne pathogens (TBPs) such as B. burgdorferi (sensu lato), which causes Lyme borreliosis (LB). Small... more
The tick Ixodes ricinus has considerable impact on the health of humans and other terrestrial animals because it transmits several tick-borne pathogens (TBPs) such as B. burgdorferi (sensu lato), which causes Lyme borreliosis (LB). Small forest patches of agricultural landscapes provide many ecosystem services and also the disservice of LB risk. Biotic interactions and environmental filtering shape tick host communities distinctively between specific regions of Europe, which makes evaluating the dilution effect hypothesis and its influence across various scales challenging. Latitude, macroclimate, landscape and habitat properties drive both hosts and ticks and are comparable metrics across Europe. Therefore, we instead assess these environmental drivers as indicators and determine their respective roles for the prevalence of B. burgdorferi in I. ricinus. We sampled I. ricinus and measured environmental properties of macroclimate, landscape and habitat quality of forest patches in ag...
2024, Journal of Medical Entomology
In total, 394 questing adult blacklegged ticks, Ixodes scapularis Say (Acari: Ixodidae), collected at four sites were analyzed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for Þve microbial species: Anaplasma phagocytophilum, Babesia microti,... more
In total, 394 questing adult blacklegged ticks, Ixodes scapularis Say (Acari: Ixodidae), collected at four sites were analyzed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for Þve microbial species: Anaplasma phagocytophilum, Babesia microti, Babesia odocoilei, Borrelia burgdorferi, and the rickettsial I. scapularis endosymbiont. Identities of genetic variants of A. phagocytophilum were determined by sequencing a portion of the 16S DNA. In 55% of infected ticks (193/351), a single agent was detected. In 45% (158/351), two or more agents were detected; 37% harbored two agents and 8% harbored three agents. One male tick, collected from Ft. McCoy, WI, harbored all four microbial genera. The highest rates of co-infection were by the Ixodes endosymbiont and B. burgdorferi (95/351). Two species of Babesia co-occurred within a single tick population in Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve, Wells, ME, whereas only B. odocoilei was found in other tick populations. Only A. phagocytophilum human anaplasmosis variant was detected in questing ticks from Tippecanoe River State Park, IN; from Wells; and Ft. McCoy, whereas a single infected tick from Presque Isle, PA, was infected by AP-Variant 1. Partially engorged ticks from deer in Tippecanoe River State Park were all infected with AP-Variant 1. Frequency of infections with each agent varied among populations. Rates and types of co-infections were not signiÞcantly different from random except for the Ixodes endosymbiont and B. burgdorferi in male ticks, which co-occurred less frequently than expected. Thus, I. scapularis hosts an array of pathogenic and symbiotic agents and potential evidence of interactions among microbial species was observed.
2024, Trends in Ecology & Evolution
2024, Ecohealth
Environment determines the distribution and prevalence of vector-borne pathogens due to its direct and indirect effects on the hosts, vectors, and pathogens. To investigate the relationship between Usutu virus occurrence and host... more
Environment determines the distribution and prevalence of vector-borne pathogens due to its direct and indirect effects on the hosts, vectors, and pathogens. To investigate the relationship between Usutu virus occurrence and host biodiversity and to characterize the nidus of infection, we used field-based measures of host diversity and density (all birds and only passerines), vector abundance, landscape and Usutu virus prevalence (mosquito infection rate), an emergent disease with a similar cycle to West Nile virus. We collected 908,237 female mosquitoes in an area of 54,984 ha in the Doñana National Park, southern Spain. We identified the mosquitoes and screened them for viruses, censused birds, characterized landscape and climatic variables, and then modeled the presence and infection rate of the virus in relation to host, vector, climatic, and landscape variables. Monthly Usutu presence, detected in Culex perexiguus, was positively related to Passeriformes richness and secondarily to NDVI in the previous month. Our results suggest that Usutu prevalence may be higher when and where host (passerine) richness was high, and thus challenging the conventional idea that host biodiversity reduces flavivirus amplification.
2024, History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences
Environmental historians are not sufficiently aware of the extent to which mid twentieth-century thinkers turned to medical geography-originally a nineteenth-century area of study-in order to think through ideas of ecology, environment,... more
Environmental historians are not sufficiently aware of the extent to which mid twentieth-century thinkers turned to medical geography-originally a nineteenth-century area of study-in order to think through ideas of ecology, environment, and historical reasoning. This article outlines how the French-Croatian Mirko D. Grmek (Krapina, 1924-Paris, 2000), a major thinker of his generation in the history of medicine, used those ideas in his studies of historical epidemiology. During the 1960s, Grmek attempted to provide, in the context of the Annales School's research program under the leadership of Fernand Braudel, a new theoretical framework for a world history of disease. Its development was inspired by several sources, most notably the French-American Jacques M. May (Paris 1896-Tunisia, 1975), who was then pioneering an opening up of medical geography and movement towards the concept of disease ecology. The cornerstone of Grmek's "synthetic approach" to the field was the notion of "pathocenosis". The diverse uses of this notion in the course of time-from his early agenda focused on a longue durée history of diseases in Western Antiquity to his last, relating to the new epidemiological threat of (re)emerging infectious diseases, specifically HIV/aids-enables us firstly, to note how concepts of ecology sat uneasily alongside those of medical geography; secondly, to assess the reach and limits of his theoretical contribution to historical epidemiology; and thirdly, to understand better the uneven fortunes of his concept of pathocenosis at the end of the twentieth and beginning of the twenty-first centuries.
2024
The Wendat or Huron Indians were made up of five clans and lived in what is now the Georgian Bay region of southern Ontario. More specifically, the Huron country was bounded by Georgian Bay to the west, lake Simcoe to the east and... more
The Wendat or Huron Indians were made up of five clans and lived in what is now the Georgian Bay region of southern Ontario. More specifically, the Huron country was bounded by Georgian Bay to the west, lake Simcoe to the east and extensive swamps and lakes to the south. The people referred to themselves as Wendats, Huron being a derogatory term used by the French, meaning unkempt knave (Wrong, 1939). Unfortunately, Huron is the name most commonly given today, so with all due respect to these people it is used here only by convention. 4 New France or what is now eastern Ontario, Quebec and the Maritime Provinces (Thwaites, 1896-1901). Using the infonnation given in the on the locations of HUron villages, Frank Ridley village of Ossossane and its associated ossuary. The ossuary was excavated in 1947-1948 by Kenneth Kidd. By comparing the location, size and artifact content of the mass burial with the detailed account of the Huron ceremony written by Brebeuf, Kidd (1953) has convincingly argued that this ossuary is the one associated with the Feast of the Dead cerenony witnessed by Brebeuf on May 13 of 1636. The skeletal sample from Ossossane represents approximately 700 Bear Clan Huron who died between about 1626 and 1636. The Bear Clan was visited in the winter of 1623-1624 by the Recollet Brother, Gabriel Sagard. Sagard has provided us with excellent descriptions of Huron life, and Trigger (in Tooker, 1964:vi;i) has noted that "of all the French writers on Huronia, Sagard is the one with whan
2024, Current Zoology
Exploration and activity are often described as trade-offs between the fitness benefits of gathering information and resources, and the potential costs of increasing exposure to predators and parasites. More exploratory individuals are... more
Exploration and activity are often described as trade-offs between the fitness benefits of gathering information and resources, and the potential costs of increasing exposure to predators and parasites. More exploratory individuals are predicted to have higher rates of parasitism, but this relationship has rarely been examined for virus infections in wild populations. Here, we used the multimammate mouse Mastomys natalensis to investigate the relationship between exploration, activity, and infection with Morogoro virus (MORV). We characterized individual exploratory behavior (open field and novel object tests) and activity (trap diversity), and quantified the relationship between these traits and infection status using linear regression. We found that M. natalensis expresses consistent individual differences, or personality types, in exploratory behavior (repeatability of 0.30, 95% CI: 0.21-0.36). In addition, we found a significant contrasting effect of age on exploration and activity where juveniles display higher exploration levels than adults, but lower fieldactivity. There was however no statistical evidence for a behavioral syndrome between these 2 traits. Contrary to our expectations, we found no correlation between MORV infection status and exploratory behavior or activity, which suggests that these behaviors may not increase exposure probability to MORV infection. This would further imply that variation in viral infection between individuals is not affected by between-individual variation in exploration and activity.
2024, Ecology and Evolution
Migration can influence host–parasite dynamics in animals by increasing exposure to parasites, by reducing the energy available for immune defense, or by culling of infected individuals. These mechanisms have been demonstrated in several... more
Migration can influence host–parasite dynamics in animals by increasing exposure to parasites, by reducing the energy available for immune defense, or by culling of infected individuals. These mechanisms have been demonstrated in several comparative analyses; however, few studies have investigated whether conspecific variation in migration distance may also be related to infection risk. Here, we ask whether autumn migration distance, inferred from stable hydrogen isotope analysis of summer‐grown feathers (δ2Hf) in Europe, correlates with blood parasite prevalence and intensity of infection for willow warblers (Phylloscopus trochilus) wintering in Zambia. We also investigated whether infection was correlated with individual condition (assessed via corticosterone, scaled mass index, and feather quality). We found that 43% of birds were infected with Haemoproteus palloris (lineage WW1). Using generalized linear models, we found no relationship between migration distance and either Haem...
2024
The wandering buffalo of Yellowstone National Park are the subject of a heated debate in the western United States. The animals carry a disease called brucellosis, which infects both buffalo and cattle and has economic consequences for... more
The wandering buffalo of Yellowstone National Park are the subject of a heated debate in the western United States. The animals carry a disease called brucellosis, which infects both buffalo and cattle and has economic consequences for ranchers. Some ranchers fear that buffalo, as they migrate out of Yellowstone in search of forage, will transmit the disease to cattle around the park and jeopardize their financial well-being. The Park Service and other government agencies have tried to control the situation by exercising a lethal form of boundary control for buffalo, though other wildlife species are unregulated. Animal advocates dispute the agencies' tactics. Native Americans wonder why the buffalo are entirely under agency control. The park has become somewhat of a war zone, where the groups quarrel throughout the migratory season. Their disagreement is about much more than the animals themselves, taking root in even older and deeper conflicts. Yet despite the tangled nature of the problem, there may be room for negotiation and eventual resolution.
2024
The wandering buffalo of Yellowstone National Park are the subject of a heated debate in the western United States. The animals carry a disease called brucellosis, which infects both buffalo and cattle and has economic consequences for... more
The wandering buffalo of Yellowstone National Park are the subject of a heated debate in the western United States. The animals carry a disease called brucellosis, which infects both buffalo and cattle and has economic consequences for ranchers. Some ranchers fear that buffalo, as they migrate out of Yellowstone in search of forage, will transmit the disease to cattle around the park and jeopardize their financial well-being. The Park Service and other government agencies have tried to control the situation by exercising a lethal form of boundary control for buffalo, though other wildlife species are unregulated. Animal advocates dispute the agencies' tactics. Native Americans wonder why the buffalo are entirely under agency control. The park has become somewhat of a war zone, where the groups quarrel throughout the migratory season. Their disagreement is about much more than the animals themselves, taking root in even older and deeper conflicts. Yet despite the tangled nature o...
2024, A Case Study on Seasonal Behaviour of Aphodius elegans Allibert an Endocoprid Dung Beetle
Dung beetles (Scarabaeidae) classified into endocoprid, paracoprid, and telecoprid beetles, are fascinating insects with various behaviors. The study focuses on behaviour of endocoprid beetles Aphodius elegans Allibert, found in... more
Dung beetles (Scarabaeidae) classified into endocoprid, paracoprid, and telecoprid beetles, are fascinating insects with various behaviors. The study focuses on behaviour of endocoprid beetles Aphodius elegans Allibert, found in Bumdeling, Trashi Yangts Bhutan. The observational and scan sampling methods were employed during the study. These beetles locate dung using antennae and dig inside it, resembling a boat propelled by oars. They are active during warm weather and bury themselves under dung during cold. Beetles defecate semi solid feces after dung foraging. They mimic death as defensive and antipredator behaviour. They prefer moist dung pats for burial and use repeated attempts and strongholds of hindwings to initiate flight. This study substantiates the diverse fascinating behaviors of a less-focused group of insects to gain a deeper understanding of their interactions with ecology.
2024, Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences
Many important and rapidly emerging pathogens of humans, livestock and wildlife are 'vector-borne'. However, the term 'vector' has been applied to diverse agents in a broad range of epidemiological systems. In this... more
Many important and rapidly emerging pathogens of humans, livestock and wildlife are 'vector-borne'. However, the term 'vector' has been applied to diverse agents in a broad range of epidemiological systems. In this perspective, we briefly review some common definitions, identify the strengths and weaknesses of each and consider the functional differences between vectors and other hosts from a range of ecological, evolutionary and public health perspectives. We then consider how the use of designations can afford insights into our understanding of epidemiological and evolutionary processes that are not otherwise apparent. We conclude that from a medical and veterinary perspective, a combination of the 'haematophagous arthropod' and 'mobility' definitions is most useful because it offers important insights into contact structure and control and emphasizes the opportunities for pathogen shifts among taxonomically similar species with similar feeding mode...
2024, Journal of Ecology
In plant invasion ecology, viruses and other pathogens are often considered in terms of the enemy release hypothesis, which predicts that plants become invasive in new ranges if they escape pathogens from their home range. However,... more
In plant invasion ecology, viruses and other pathogens are often considered in terms of the enemy release hypothesis, which predicts that plants become invasive in new ranges if they escape pathogens from their home range. However, pathogens may sometimes facilitate host spread rather than hinder it. 2. Previously, we hypothesized that apparent competition mediated by barley and cereal yellow dwarf viruses (Luteoviridae: BYDVs, CYDVs) may have facilitated historical grassland invasion in California, USA, where Eurasian grasses displaced native grasses in the 18th and 19th centuries (the disease facilitation hypotheses). However, this could have happened only if the viruses were present during the invasion, which is unknown. 3. To investigate the historical ecology of BYDVs in California grasses, we analysed preserved virus infections in herbarium specimens and used the historical virus sequences to determine rough time estimates of relevant phylogenetic events. 4. The historical viral RNA sequences we identified in invasive and native grasses date from 1917 and are among the oldest recovered from plants thus far and the oldest from North America. 5. Herbarium evidence and phylogenetic analysis suggest that BYDVs were likely to have been present in wild grasses during the California grassland invasion and to have shared some functional characteristics with present-day isolates, supporting the disease facilitation hypothesis. 6. We found evidence of virus spread from California to Australia (or, less likely, from Australia to California) in the late 19th century, when much horticultural exchange occurred, as well as potential correspondence in the timing of virus diversification events and the beginning of extensive human exchange between the Old and New Worlds. 7. Synthesis. Increasing evidence indicates that viruses are important in the ecology of grasslands and may, in some cases, mediate apparent competition among species. Historical data provide essential insight into plant virus ecology and suggest the need to examine human influence on plant virus diversification and spread within natural ecosystems.
2024, International journal of health geographics
BACKGROUND: Spatial filtering using a geographic information system (GIS) is often used to smooth health and ecological data. Smoothing disease data can help us understand local (neighborhood) geographic variation and ecological risk of... more
BACKGROUND: Spatial filtering using a geographic information system (GIS) is often used to smooth health and ecological data. Smoothing disease data can help us understand local (neighborhood) geographic variation and ecological risk of diseases. Analyses that use small neighborhood sizes yield individualistic patterns and large sizes reveal the global structure of data where local variation is obscured. Therefore, choosing an optimal neighborhood size is important for understanding ecological associations with diseases. This paper uses Hartley's test of homogeneity of variance (Fmax) as a methodological solution for selecting optimal neighborhood sizes. The data from a study area in Vietnam are used to test the suitability of this method. RESULTS: The Hartley's Fmax test was applied to spatial variables for two enteric diseases and two socioeconomic determinants. Various neighbourhood sizes were tested by using a two step process to implement the Fmaxtest. First the variance…
2024, HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe)
HAL is a multidisciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific research documents, whether they are published or not. The documents may come from teaching and research institutions in France or abroad, or... more
HAL is a multidisciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific research documents, whether they are published or not. The documents may come from teaching and research institutions in France or abroad, or from public or private research centers. L'archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, émanant des établissements d'enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés.