Wildlife Disease Ecology
Linking Theory to Data and Application

Introduces readers to key case studies that illustrate how theory and data can be integrated to understand wildlife disease ecology.

Kenneth Wilson (Edited by), Andy Fenton (Edited by), Dan Tompkins (Edited by)

9781107136564, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 14 November 2019

690 pages, 284 b/w illus.
25.2 x 18 x 3.5 cm, 1.58 kg

'This book comes to fill an important niche in disease ecology: synthesizing the state of knowledge about wildlife disease ecology while integrating theoretical models with a wide variety empirical case studies … this book presents an invaluable synthesis of our knowledge of disease ecology in wildlife hosts.' Miguel A. Acevedo, The Quarterly Review of Biology

Just like humans, animals and plants suffer from infectious diseases, which can critically threaten biodiversity. This book describes key studies that have driven our understanding of the ecology and evolution of wildlife diseases. Each chapter introduces the host and disease, and explains how that system has aided our general understanding of the evolution and spread of wildlife diseases, through the development and testing of important epidemiological and evolutionary theories. Questions addressed include: How do hosts and parasites co-evolve? What determines how fast a disease spreads through a population? How do co-infecting parasites interact? Why do hosts vary in parasite burden? Which factors determine parasite virulence and host resistance? How do parasites influence the spread of invasive species? How do we control infectious diseases in wildlife? This book will provide a valuable introduction to students new to the topic, and novel insights to researchers, professionals and policymakers working in the field.

Preface: wildlife disease ecology
Glossary of terms
Part I. Understanding Within-Host Processes: 1. Pollinator diseases: the Bombus-Crithidia system
2. Genetic diversity and disease spread: epidemiological models and empirical studies of a snail-trematode system
3. Wild rodents as a natural model to study within-host parasite interactions
4. From population to individual host scale and back again: testing theories of infection and defence in the Soay sheep of St Kilda
5. The causes and consequences of parasite interactions: African buffalo as a case study
6. Effects of host lifespan on the evolution of age-specific resistance: a case study of anther-smut disease on wild carnations
7. Sexually transmitted infections in natural populations: what have we learnt from beetles and beyond?
Part II. Understanding Between-Host Processes: 8. Using insect baculoviruses to understand how population structure affects disease spread
9. Infection and invasion: study cases from aquatic communities
10. Parasite mediated selection in red grouse – consequences for population dynamics and mate choice
11. Emergence, transmission and evolution of an uncommon enemy: Tasmanian devil facial tumour disease
12. Bovine tuberculosis in badgers: sociality, infection and demography in a social mammal
13. Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae in bighorn sheep: from exploration to action
14. Manipulating parasites in an Arctic herbivore: gastrointestinal nematodes and the population regulation of Svalbard reindeer
Part III. Understanding Wildlife Disease Ecology at the Community and Landscape Level: 15. The ecological and evolutionary trajectory of oak powdery mildew in Europe
16. Healthy herds or predator spreaders? Insights from the plankton into how predators suppress and spread disease
17. Multi-trophic interactions and migration behaviour determine the ecology and evolution of parasite infection in monarch butterflies
18. When chytrid fungus invades: integrating theory and data to understand disease- induced amphibian declines
19. Ecology of a marine ectoparasite in farmed and wild salmon
20. Mycoplasmal conjunctivitis in house finches: the study of an emerging disease
21. Heterogeneities in infection and transmission in a parasite-rabbit system: key issues for understanding disease dynamics and persistence
22. Sylvatic plague in Central Asia: a case study of abundance thresholds.

Subject Areas: Zoos & wildlife parks [WNH], Wildlife: general interest [WNC], Conservation of wildlife & habitats [RNKH], Animal ecology [PSVS], Animal pathology & diseases [PSVL], Plant ecology [PSTS], Plant pathology & diseases [PSTP], Mathematical modelling [PBWH]