The Ecology of Plague

Plague, a zoonotic disease caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, is one of the most infamous infectious diseases in human history. For centuries, the disease has devastated the world, resulting in millions of casualties. The plague bacterium is naturally among small mammals in Nature, particularly among small rodents. It occasionally spills over to human populations, posing a significant threat to public health. The World Health Organization (WHO) has classified plague as a re-emerging and notifiable disease. An understanding of the ecology of Y. pestis in Nature is thus essential if we are to understand the dynamics of the bacterium in both Nature and human populations, and to develop effective strategies to prevent outbreaks of plague in humans. In this chapter, we integrate existing knowledge on the ecology of plague in order to provide a comprehensive understanding of the spatio-temporal dynamics of the bacterium in Nature and its spill over to people. We also pose some questions that require urgent attention in future research.