Emerging pathogens: the epidemiology and evolution of species jumps

By Mark E. J. Woolhouse, Daniel T. Haydon, R. Antia. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 2005

687 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Novel pathogens continue to emerge in human, domestic animal, wildlife and plant populations, yet the population dynamics of this kind of biological invasion remain poorly understood. Here, we consider the epidemiological and evolutionary processes underlying the initial introduction and subsequent spread of a pathogen in a new host population, with special reference to pathogens that originate by jumping from one host species to another. We conclude that, although pathogen emergence is inherently unpredictable, emerging pathogens tend to share some common traits, and that directly transmitted RNA viruses might be the pathogens that are most likely to jump between host species.

Subfields: Agronomy and Crop Science, Infectious Diseases, Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/78f8e23b8737da316457d547877846b3fadc4c5b

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Agronomy and Crop Science

1. Melissa J. Ward
2. S. Sommer
3. P. Daszak
4. D. Morens

In Infectious Diseases

1. Melissa J. Ward
2. S. Sommer
3. P. Daszak
4. Edward C. Holmes
5. D. Morens

In Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health

1. Melissa J. Ward
2. S. Sommer
3. P. Daszak
4. Edward C. Holmes

Citations in the corpus

• The importance of immune gene variability (MHC) in evolutionary ecology and conservation (2005, background): “Habitat degradation and climatic conditions are also crucial parameters in terms of distribution, transmission and developmental success of parasites and pathogens [18,192,193].”
• Cross-Species Virus Transmission and the Emergence of New Epidemic Diseases (2008, background): “This indicates that cross-species transmission should be more common in rapidly evolving viruses (12, 24, 41, 147, 149).”
• Management of disease in wild mammals (2009, background): “There is evidence that R is influenced by risk factors related to host ecology, behaviour, density, phenotype (mass immunity), and host and parasite genotypes (Woolhouse et al. 2005).”
• The One Health Concept: 10 Years Old and a Long Road Ahead (2018, background): “The majority of emerging infectious diseases considered to be significant in terms of public health also have a zoonotic origin (21), and almost three-quarters originate in wild animals (22).”
• Urbanization and Disease Emergence: Dynamics at the Wildlife–Livestock–Human Interface (2017, background): “Certain pathogens (RNA viruses in particular) seem inherently more adept at taking advantage of new epidemiological opportunities than others; possibly due to high mutation rates and broader host plasticity [52,63].”
• Novel associations between pathogens, insects and tree species threaten world forests (2010, background): “This has been a concept well recognised in medicine with many serious diseases emerging from the close association between humans and animals (Woolhouse et al., 2005).”
• Time-dependent spectral analysis of epidemiological time-series with wavelets (2007, background): “Disease emergences reveal the complex dynamical relationships between humans, pathogens and the global environment (Morens et al. 2004; Woolhouse et al. 2005).”
• Emerging diseases in European forest ecosystems and responses in society. (2011, background): “predict which species will have a higher likelihood of establishment and spread in the future [23,24].”