Chapter 1: Interkingdom Community Interactions in Disease Ecology
Authors: M. Eric Benbow, Jennifer L. Pechal, Jeffery K. Tomberlin, and Heather R. Jordan
Chapter 2: Biodiversity and Disease Transmission
Author: Serge Morand
Part II: The Ecology of Infectious Diseases Affecting Humans
Chapter 3: Understanding and Estimating the Risk of Waterborne Infectious Disease Associated with Drinking Water
Author: Christon J. Hurst
Chapter 4: The Ecology of Bacterial Agents of Foodborne Illness
Authors: Alexander Gill and John W. Austin
Chapter 5: Impact of Mycobacterial Biofilms on Public Health
Author: Anil K. Ojha
Part III: The Ecology of Infectious Diseases Affecting Livestock and Wildlife
Chapter 6: Opportunistic Bacteria Associated with Mammalian Livestock Disease
Author: Christon J. Hurst
Chapter 7: Infectious Disease in Wild Animal Populations: examining transmission and control with mathematical models
Authors: Sergey S. Berg, James D. Forester, and Meggan E. Craft
Chapter 8: The Ecology of Pathogen Spillover and Disease Emergence at the Human – Wildlife – Environment Interface
Authors: Kathleen A. Alexander, Colin J. Carlson, Bryan L. Lewis, Wayne M. Getz, Madhav V. Marathe, Stephen G. Eubank, Claire E. Sanderson, and Jason K. Blackburn
Chapter 9: Integrating Landscape Hierarchies in the Discovery and Modeling of Ecological Drivers of Zoonotically Transmitted Disease from Wildlife
Authors: Douglas G. Goodin, Colleen B. Jonsson, Linda J. S. Allen, and Robert D. Owen
Christon J. Hurst
Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
and
Universidad del Valle, Santiago de Cali, Valle, Colombia
This book summarizes current advances in our understanding of how infectious disease represents an ecological interaction between a pathogenic microorganism and the host species in which that microbe causes illness.
The contributing authors explain that pathogenic microorganisms often also have broader ecological connections, which can include a natural environmental presence; possible transmission by vehicles such as air, water, and food; and interactions with other host species, including vectors for which the microbe either may or may not be pathogenic.
This field of science has been dubbed disease ecology, and the chapters that examine it have been grouped into three sections. The first section introduces both the role of biological community interactions and the impact of biodiversity on infectious disease. In turn, the second section considers those diseases directly affecting humans, with a focus on waterborne and foodborne illnesses, while also examining the critical aspect of microbial biofilms. Lastly, the third section presents the ecology of infectious diseases from the perspective of their impact on mammalian livestock and wildlife as well as on humans.
Given its breadth of coverage, the volume offers a valuable resource for microbial ecologists and biomedical scientists alike.