Disease Ecology

The overarching aim of the course is to offer a current and comprehensive view of the causes and consequences of infectious disease at the levels of individuals, populations, communities, and ecosystems. Primary objectives are that students understand 1) the host-parasite relationship as a key ecological interaction (i.e., analogous to the predator-prey relationship) and 2) the general approaches and specific techniques essential to the study disease ecology.

After successful completion of this course students are expected to be able to:

• summarize the key features and describe the impact/relevance of different infectious diseases affecting free-living organisms;
• evaluate behavioral and ecological factors that affect spatio-temporal variation in disease outbreaks;
• make and justify predictions relating to ecological variation and host immune defenses;
• assess methods for studying diseases and host defenses of wild populations;
• design and implement an ecological study to answer a question related to diseases and host defenses;
• develop and analyze compartmental models and other SIR models, including through the use of programming software (e.g., R);
• appraise the strengths and limitations of modelling diseases and outbreaks in wild populations;
• compare and contrast scenarios that would and would not result in a disease outbreak;
• evaluate potential interventions for their capacity to control an outbreak.

Mandatory Knowledge:
ZSS06200 Fieldwork Safety
Assumed Knowledge:
Ecological interactions, basic physiology, basic microbiology, e.g.,
MBI: CBI20306 Cell Biology and Health, HAP21806 Behavioural Endocrinology, NEM20806 Basics of Infectious Diseases.
MFN: WEC20803 Applied Animal Ecology, WEC30306 Animal Ecology.
MAS: QVE20306 Veterinary Epidemiology and Economics, QVE30306 Quantitative Veterinary Epidemiology, QVE30806 Management of Infections and Diseases in Animal Populations.