Zoonotic Disease

problem in the world that has led to the suffering of animals for thousands of

contaminated water or food
17. For each pathway listed in question #16, explain the relationship of the mode of transmission to the virulence of the invader.

Transition: Now that we know what a problem animal overpopulation is, let’s talk about how we can help to solve this issue.

Provide some examples of sources of infection for novel diseases, including the mode of transmission for WNV. Why is this concern?

Escape from the host or reservoir of infection (where the infectious agent normally lives and multiplies).

- wounds and breaks in the skin (pathogens enter the body through mucus membranes, nose, mouth, gut, genital urinary track - catheters, or wounds like surgical incisions which can cause e.g. MRSA).

Zoonotic diseases is a serious and major concern to human health. What is a zoonosis? Zoonoses are diseases that are caused by pathogens that can infect different animals that has the ability to pass to humans. Zoonotic pathogens also destroy biodiversity in fragile wildlife. They cause many effects to humans in many different ways. Zoonosis are very important to study because scientists await a challenge on developing vaccines on a developing cure on human aids. Zoontic diseases are dangerous because it can spread by mosquitos, and ticks.

The spread of infection requires three elements. The first is; A source of infecting microorganisms: This could be an exogenous infection which arises from microorganisms external to the individual and do not exist as normal flora. They usually have a preferred portal of entry like the gastrointestinal for Salmonella. Another source is endogenous infections which can occur when part of the client’s flora becomes altered and an overgrowth results e.g. Yeasts infection. Second requirement is means of transmission for the microorganism, which also explains the three primary modes of pathogen transmission. For example, vertical transmission is when a pathogen is

No matter how many people do claim overpopulation is not a relevant issue, it very much is because of the simple fact that starvation and pollution are very real and existing issues that are ultimately offset by overpopulation. In an article titled “Overpopulation Is Not the Problem,” author Erle C. Ellis uses the analogy “Like bacteria in a petri dish, our exploding numbers are reaching the limits of a finite planet, with dire consequences,” to argue that overpopulation is not a problem by stating the opposing claim. “We are nothing like bacteria in a petri dish,” Mr. Ellis solemnly asserts, “...these claims demonstrate a profound misunderstanding of the ecology of human systems. The conditions that sustain humanity are not natural and never have been. Since prehistory, human populations have used technologies and engineered ecosystems to sustain

A communicable disease chain is the mechanism by which an infective agent or pathogen is transmitted. The chain requires an infective agent, a source of infection, a mode of transmission and a host. An example of an infective agent could be bacteria, a virus, fungus, protozoan or helminth. The source of infective agents can be transmission from host to host, an infected human or animal, insects, soil or livestock. The mode of transmission is how the infective agent is carried from host to host. Transmission can be by air, ingestion or physical contact. To complete a life cycle or to replicate, the infective agent requires a host.

The world tends to react wildly when a new disease begins to spread rapidly through the population, but most often these diseases are zoonoses. If we were to focus more studies on diseases within animals and their potential to effect humans, we could prevent these outbreaks, like the Ebola virus epidemic in 2014. The outbreak, upon further investigation, is thought to have stemmed from a population of infected bats (WHO 2016). The issue is that most often our research is focused on diseases that have already proven to be a concern. This is founded in the fact that over 50% of 16,000 publications on disease within animal science were related to less than ten diseases in the past one hundred years (University of Sydney 2015). Research is difficult to fund when there is no public interest, therefore most time and money is spent researching the diseases that people have the desire to learn how to fix. This means things like the avian flu or bovine tuberculosis that are considered big issues within the human population gather huge amounts of funding, instead of lesser known diseases that have the potential to be transmittable to humans. This leaves the population vulnerable to sudden outbreaks of zoonoses that were previously unstudied or had underfunded research in

“The rodents spread the plague from China to Europe and it hit Britain in 1348.”(Bates, Claire) So if the world is so populated more people will be homeless, and the disease could spread easier wiping out millions. The black death was also spread by people getting bites from infected rats, the disease travels through the body into the lungs, and when the person coughs or sneezes, the disease is transmitted into the air and can infect people who breath in that same air. So if the world becomes too over populated and there aren’t enough houses people will be living on the streets where disease could spread easier and faster just like the black death. “Indirect contact infections spread when an infected person sneezes or coughs, sending infectious droplets into the air.”(DIRECT…) So if everyone if coughing and sneezing then anyone who breathes in that contaminated air could get the disease. “Last year, it called dengue the “most rapidly spreading mosquito-borne viral disease” in the world—faster than West Nile virus or malaria.”(The deadly…) If this disease was to break out when the world is overpopulated a disease could take out almost half the entire human race.There are hundreds of diseases that can be spread by animals, some examples are all types of Influenza, Bubonic Plague, zoonotic diseases, HIV/AIDS, Ebola, and Polio. One disease is the Zika virus, it is spread by mosquito bites who bite women and when if the infected women gets pregnant the Zika virus transfers the virus to the child, once the child is born the child could be born with a fatal brain defect. When the world becomes more populated more people could get bit with more mosquitos and get the Zika virus and a whole new generation of kids could be born with a brain

As the title of article states, Dr. Mayer suggests that political ecology as a new coherent analytical framework over traditional perspective of political economy and cultural ecology in terms of understanding the conditions of disease. Furthermore, "most broadly, the political ecological approach seeks to understand the unintended consequences of environmental decisions, and particularly those consequences that alter human–environment relations" (Mayer, 2006. Appendix C). Dr. Mayer also notes in his article "the integration of power into the understanding of disease dynamic has thus been neglected from several dimensions, and the article represents and attempt at developing a framework for such integration" (Mayer, 1996. p. 443).

Zoonotic disease systems are complex and difficult to predict because there are a large number of biotic and abiotic variables (Alexander et al. 2012). These variables may include biological, genetic, ecological, environmental, and socio-economic factors (Wilcox and Gubler 2005, Estrada-Pena et al 2014). However, integrated models can provide crucial insights into the ecological dynamics of a disease system (Plowright et al. 2008), and they can help inform public health interventions and guide public health policies (Leach and Scoones 2013). By simplifying these different aspects of a zoonotic disease system into constrained components that are easier to understand, models can answer specific questions about disease system

There are many kinds of environment: the physical environment often thought of as nature, psychological environments built out of human interactions, and political environments rife with manipulation and posturing. While there are some obvious effects that large human populations would have on the natural environment, there are also less evident psychological and political ramifications. Thus, overpopulation is today's most pressing environmental issue.