Plague outbreaks in prairie dog populations explained by percolation thresholds of alternate host abundance.

ABSTRACT: Highly lethal pathogens (e.g., hantaviruses, hendra virus, anthrax, or plague) pose unique public-health problems, because they seem to periodically flare into outbreaks before disappearing into long quiescent phases. A key element to their possible control and eradication is being able to understand where they persist in the latent phase and how to identify the conditions that result in sporadic epidemics or epizootics. In American grasslands, plague, caused by Yersinia pestis, exemplifies this quiescent-outbreak pattern, because it sporadically erupts in epizootics that decimate prairie dog (Cynomys ludovicianus) colonies, yet the causes of outbreaks and mechanisms for interepizootic persistence of this disease are poorly understood. Using field data on prairie community ecology, flea be

SUBMITTER: Salkeld DJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2922574 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature