Diseases of humans and their domestic mammals: pathogen characteristics, host range and the risk of emergence

Abstract

Pathogens that can be transmitted between di¡erent host species are of fundamental interest and importance from public health, conservation and economic perspectives, yet systematic quanti¢cation of these pathogens is lacking. Here, pathogen characteristics, host range and risk factors determining disease emergence were analysed by constructing a database of disease-causing pathogens of humans and domestic mammals. The database consisted of 1415 pathogens causing disease in humans, 616 in livestock and 374 in domestic carnivores. Multihost pathogens were very prevalent among human pathogens (61.6%) and even more so among domestic mammal pathogens (livestock 77.3%, carnivores 90.0%). Pathogens able to infect human, domestic and wildlife hosts contained a similar proportion of diseasecausing pathogens for all three host groups. One hundred and ninety-six pathogens were associated with emerging diseases, 175 in humans, 29 in livestock and 12 in domestic carnivores. Across all these groups, helminths and fungi were relatively unlikely to emerge whereas viruses, particularly RNA viruses, were highly likely to emerge. The ability of a pathogen to infect multiple hosts, particularly hosts in other taxonomic orders or wildlife, were also risk factors for emergence in human and livestock pathogens. There is clearly a need to understand the dynamics of infectious diseases in complex multihost communities in order to mitigate disease threats to public health, livestock economies and wildlife.

Emergence of Salmonella epidemics: The problems related to Salmonella enterica serotyp Enteritidis and multiple antibiotic resistance in other major serotypes

“…Genome evolution is indeed one great source of emergence. A second source is the ability of a pathogen to infect multiple hosts, particularly hosts in different taxonomic orders or wildlife [29]. In the case of antimicrobial resistant bacteria, it is of prime importance that all sectors using antibiotics (medicine, veterinary, horticulture) cooperate to minimise the proliferation of resistant bacteria, which may more generally have important consequences for virulence evolution and disease control.…”

Parasite and host assemblages: embracing the reality will improve our knowledge of parasite transmission and virulence

“…Williams & Jones 1994;Musselman & Press 1995;Cleaveland et al 2001;Taylor et al 2001;Pedersen et al 2005), with recent work suggesting that such generalist parasites may even have evolved from host specialists ). Consequently, the impact of multiple host backgrounds on parasite transmission and virulence will be key to gaining a true understanding of host-parasite evolution.…”

Epidemiology and host spectrum of Borna disease virus infections

“…As many as 60-80 % of emerging human diseases are zoonoses (Cleaveland et al, 2001;Jones et al, 2008). Of the emerging zoonotic pathogens, 71.8 % originate from wildlife (Jones et al, 2008) or, more specifically, 58 % infect ungulates, 51 % carnivores, and 34 % rodents (Cleaveland et al, 2001), emphasizing the utmost importance of collaboration between veterinary, medical and wildlife sciences in the detection and battle against these threats.…”