The Role of the Environment in the Spread and Maintenance of Zoonotic Pathogens

A special issue of Veterinary Sciences (ISSN 2306-7381).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 June 2018) | Viewed by 29717

Special Issue Editor

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

It is recognized that 62% of human pathogens, and 75% of emerging diseases, are zoonotic. It is accepted that human health and exposure to zoonotic disease is influenced by health of, and contact with, animals yet the environment plays a considerable role in the survival of zoonotic pathogens, their transport and exposure to human populations. Furthermore, the environment plays a role in, and provides drivers for, newly emerging disease and re-emerging diseases, for others, as with those, it acts as a reservoir for their survival. Coupled with antimicrobial resistance there is a real need for a deeper understanding of the threats to human health. This special issues recognizes that there are challenges to understanding the behaviour of zoonotic pathogens in the environment, their detection, identifying new threats and developing methods for their surveillance. There is a particular need for a One Health approach and this issue welcomes contributions that reflect single and multidisciplinary approaches to improving human health by reducing exposure to zoonotic infections.

Prof. Dr. Roger Pickup
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Veterinary Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2100 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Zoonoses
  • environment
  • human health
  • viruses
  • bacteria
  • fungi
  • protozoa

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • e-Book format: Special Issues with more than 10 articles can be published as dedicated e-books, ensuring wide and rapid dissemination.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue polices can be found here.

Published Papers (2 papers)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Review

20 pages, 1533 KiB  
Review
Forecasting Zoonotic Infectious Disease Response to Climate Change: Mosquito Vectors and a Changing Environment
by Andrew W. Bartlow, Carrie Manore, Chonggang Xu, Kimberly A. Kaufeld, Sara Del Valle, Amanda Ziemann, Geoffrey Fairchild and Jeanne M. Fair
Vet. Sci. 2019, 6(2), 40; https://doi.org/10.3390/vetsci6020040 - 6 May 2019
Cited by 99 | Viewed by 17819
Abstract
Infectious diseases are changing due to the environment and altered interactions among hosts, reservoirs, vectors, and pathogens. This is particularly true for zoonotic diseases that infect humans, agricultural animals, and wildlife. Within the subset of zoonoses, vector-borne pathogens are changing more rapidly with [...] Read more.
Infectious diseases are changing due to the environment and altered interactions among hosts, reservoirs, vectors, and pathogens. This is particularly true for zoonotic diseases that infect humans, agricultural animals, and wildlife. Within the subset of zoonoses, vector-borne pathogens are changing more rapidly with climate change, and have a complex epidemiology, which may allow them to take advantage of a changing environment. Most mosquito-borne infectious diseases are transmitted by mosquitoes in three genera: Aedes, Anopheles, and Culex, and the expansion of these genera is well documented. There is an urgent need to study vector-borne diseases in response to climate change and to produce a generalizable approach capable of generating risk maps and forecasting outbreaks. Here, we provide a strategy for coupling climate and epidemiological models for zoonotic infectious diseases. We discuss the complexity and challenges of data and model fusion, baseline requirements for data, and animal and human population movement. Disease forecasting needs significant investment to build the infrastructure necessary to collect data about the environment, vectors, and hosts at all spatial and temporal resolutions. These investments can contribute to building a modeling community around the globe to support public health officials so as to reduce disease burden through forecasts with quantified uncertainty. Full article
Show Figures

Graphical abstract

22 pages, 313 KiB  
Review
Ticks and Tick-Borne Infections: Complex Ecology, Agents, and Host Interactions
by Stephen K. Wikel
Vet. Sci. 2018, 5(2), 60; https://doi.org/10.3390/vetsci5020060 - 20 Jun 2018
Cited by 125 | Viewed by 10890
Abstract
Ticks transmit the most diverse array of infectious agents of any arthropod vector. Both ticks and the microbes they transmit are recognized as significant threats to human and veterinary public health. This article examines the potential impacts of climate change on the distribution [...] Read more.
Ticks transmit the most diverse array of infectious agents of any arthropod vector. Both ticks and the microbes they transmit are recognized as significant threats to human and veterinary public health. This article examines the potential impacts of climate change on the distribution of ticks and the infections they transmit; the emergence of novel tick-borne pathogens, increasing geographic range and incidence of tick-borne infections; and advances in the characterization of tick saliva mediated modulation of host defenses and the implications of those interactions for transmission, establishment, and control of tick infestation and tick-borne infectious agents. Full article
Back to TopTop