An Introduction to the Ecology of Wildlife Diseases in the Neotropics

Neotropical environments are currently under constant and increasing anthropogenic pressure, transforming landscapes and the communities of species that use them. This undoubtedly favors changes in the patterns of interaction between components of infectious disease systems. In addition, it reduces the contact gap between humans and their domestic animals, triggering outbreaks of infectious diseases. Associated ecological, evolutionary, and epidemiological factors appear to have an enormous impact on the presence, prevalence, and spread of emerging pathogens, and biodiversity loss is recognized as a widespread phenomenon that influences the emergence of infectious disease reservoirs. Describing the interactions between hosts, pathogens, and vectors in neotropical environments allows us to determine how anthropogenic disturbance and other associated variables affect the ecology, evolution, and epidemiology of tropical diseases, providing basic scientific information for disease prevention, management, and control. It also provides the necessary tools for the conservation and surveillance of human and animal health at local and regional levels in changing neotropical landscapes. We hope that this book will support the study of disease ecology in the neotropics and the conservation of tropical environments.