Zargar UR, Chishti MZ, Ahmad F, Rather MI. Does alteration in biodiversity really affect disease outcome? - A debate is brewing.
Saudi J Biol Sci 2014;
22:14-8. [PMID:
25561877 DOI:
10.1016/j.sjbs.2014.05.004]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/13/2014] [Revised: 05/18/2014] [Accepted: 05/18/2014] [Indexed: 11/15/2022] Open
Abstract
How changes in biodiversity alter the transmission of infectious diseases is presently under debate. Epidemiologists and ecologists have put a lot of effort to understand the mechanism behind biodiversity-disease relationship. Two important mechanisms, i.e. dilution and amplification theories have in some manner made it clear that biodiversity and disease outcome have an intimate relationship. The dilution effect theory seems to answer some overarching questions, but paucity of information about many disease systems is a real obstacle for its acceptance. Also, there is hardly any agreement on host population threshold and critical community size vis-à-vis wild life diseases. We suggest a multidimensional approach whereby the same disease system needs to be studied in different ecological zones and then the effect of biodiversity on disease outcome needs to be ascertained. Nonetheless, caution is to be taken while jumping to any conclusion as biodiversity-disease relationship is a multifactorial process.
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