PARENT SESSION
Session #11: The role of parasites and infectious diseases in ecology. Organized by: A. Dobson, L. Real, R. Ostfeld, and R. Holt.
Tuesday, August 7, 2001. Madison Ballroom A
Good medicine for conservation biology: the intersection of epidemiology and conservation theory.
Lafferty, Kevin1, Gerber, Leah2, 1 2
ABSTRACT- Infectious disease can be a concern for several aspects of conservation biology, such as determining threats to species, estimating population viability, designing reserves, captive breeding and recovery programs. Several measures are useful for describing infectious diseases in host populations, however it is not straightforward to determine the degree to which a particular disease may influence a host population. The most basic epidemiological theory suggests that populations should be least subject to host-specific infectious disease when they are at low abundance (ironically, the state at which they are in most need of conservation). There are important exceptions however, such as when a reservoir host exists or when Allee effects occur. Several of the key threats to biodiversity (habitat alteration, introduced species, pollution, resource exploitation, climate change) can facilitate and/or impair disease processes. Common management tools such as PVA rarely explicitly consider infectious disease; we suggest that such an inclusion is both possible and warranted. Considerations of infectious disease may influence the way we determine if a species is in need of protection as well as how we might design reserves and captive breeding programs. Southern sea otters (Enhydra lutris nereis) make an interesting case study for the consideration of the intersection of disease and epidemiology because disease is an important factor limiting the growth of otter populations. Otters are an accidental host for most diseases that have put them at risk and may be highly sensitive to disease as a result of immunosuppression from contaminants.
KEY WORDS: infectious disease, host population, epidemiology