Volume 23, Number 1—January 2017
Perspective
A Framework for Modeling Emerging Diseases to Inform Management
Table
Key information needs for management of emerging diseases of wildlife
Pathogen characteristics | Description |
---|---|
Pathogenicity | What is the severity, lethality, and rapidity (rate of mortality) of effects on hosts? |
Environmental niche | What environmental conditions (temperature, humidity) restrict persistence? |
Taxonomic breadth of host |
Is there evidence that the agent type can affect hosts across multiple taxa? Which taxa? |
Host characteristics | |
Contact networks | Spatial structure: What is the spatial structure of host populations: panmictic, metapopulations, or isolated? Does this vary across the landscape? |
Movement patterns: What is the average and maximum distance an infected host might travel? | |
Social behavior: What is the social behavior of individual members in the host populations? What is the rate of contact between species? | |
Transmission pathways | How is the pathogen transmitted between hosts? How many different transmission pathways are there? |
1These authors contributed equally to this article.