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Systems analysis of a host-parasite interaction*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2009

L. H. Ractliffe
Affiliation:
Center for Environmental Quality Management, Hollister Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York
H. M. Taylor
Affiliation:
Center for Environmental Quality Management, Hollister Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York
J. H. Whitlock
Affiliation:
Center for Environmental Quality Management, Hollister Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York
W. R. Lynn
Affiliation:
Center for Environmental Quality Management, Hollister Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York

Extract

Most epidemiological models assume that disease is the inevitable outcome of infection (see Bailey, 1957). Yet as Dubos (1965) has said; ‘Throughout nature, infection without disease is the rule rather than the exception’. There are, in fact, many diseases whose distribution cannot be explained solely by a consideration of the probabilities of host parasite encounters. In these cases, a diseased state is only one possible outcome of an interaction between parasite phenotypes, host phenotypes and the external environment. Haemonchosis is an example of such a disease and has been studied extensively in quantitative terms (see Whitlock & Georgi, 1968).

Information

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1969

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