Why apply ecological laws to epidemiology?
Using ecological laws, or rules, is a useful strategy for epidemiological observations. The application of Taylor's power law to epidemiology and evolutionary ecology of parasites is exemplified here. Taylor's power law takes the form of s2 = amb, where s2 is the variance in population abundance, m is the mean abundance of the population, a represents a constant parameter and b represents an index of spatial heterogeneity. Although Taylor's power law reflects the aggregation of parasite (or pathogen) individuals among host population, the values of b could reflect regulation processes in host- parasite systems. Illustrations are given showing how b value is linked to various epidemiological situations: pathogen emergence, the impact of vaccination or the level of host immune defence.
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | article biblioteca |
| Language: | eng |
| Subjects: | L72 - Organismes nuisibles des animaux, L20 - Écologie animale, L73 - Maladies des animaux, modèle mathématique, écologie des populations, dynamique des populations, épidémiologie, parasite, agent pathogène, immunodéficience, hôte, vaccination, relation hôte parasite, http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_24199, http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_37336, http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_6111, http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_2615, http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_5574, http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_5630, http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_29618, http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_3673, http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_15123, http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_11620, |
| Online Access: | http://agritrop.cirad.fr/552928/ http://agritrop.cirad.fr/552928/1/document_552928.pdf |
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