Explain the Community ecology of disease?
Ebola, hantavirus, bubonic plague, Lyme disease, West Nile virus, rinderpest, and canine distemper virus are all instances of diseases that affect focal host populations by repeated transmission across species boundaries (for example Osterhaus 2002; Schmid and Ostfeld 2001; Yates et al. 2002). To understand, predict, and control the dynamics of these diseases, we should understand the ecology of the reservoir host communities that keep and amplify them, and the ecology of contacts among these reservoir communities and the focal, or receiving, species. Empirical work is essential to establish the basic facts of individual- level infection and immunity, also the patterns of animal behaviour and movement. Quantitative theoretical frameworks play an important role in guiding data collection, estimating transmission rates within and among species (which are approximately impossible to estimate except in a modelling framework), and understanding the observed patterns of disease. Additionally, models can be used to assess ways to control disease outbreaks, like vaccinating, culling, or treating specific reservoir species.