Veterinary Epidemiology and Zoonosis

ECOLOGY OF DISEASE

• The study of disease in populations requires an understanding of the relationship between hosts and agents and their environment.
• The study of animals and plants in relation to their habits and habitation is ecology (Greek: oikos -house; logos - discussing).
• Ecology developed as a discipline relating to animals and plants, but has been extended to include microorganisms.
• The scale of ecology therefore ranges from an investigation of leptospires in the environment of the renal tubules to the distribution of sylvatic hosts of FMD in the African savannahs.
• The study of disease’s ecology (natural history) is a part of epidemiological investigation.
• It has two objectives
  • (i). An increase in understanding of the pathogenesis, maintenance and transmission of infectious agents of disease.
  • (ii). The use of knowledge of a disease’s ecology to predict when and where a disease may occur, and to enable the development of suitable control measures.