Disease Ecology Learning Objectives

*While you still should pay attention to these learning objectives, the pre-class
assignment for this week is to do the Disease Ecology Homework Quiz linked in Canvas.
Reading assignment is also detailed in Canvas.
Student will be able to:

● Be familiar with vocabulary surrounding disease ecology, including

o virulence
Virulence is the change in per-capita mortality associated with the disease. highly
virulent pathogens cause the presentation of many symptoms in the host, and lead to
high rates of mortality. Pathogens with low virulence may result in hosts that are
asymptomatic, with very low rates of mortality.
o transmissibility
horizontal transmission
vertical transmission
o quarantine

o isolation

● Create and interpret a disease model using box and arrow diagrams

● Categorize individuals in terms of where they would be in a disease model

(susceptible, immune, etc.)

● Create a mathematical model using equations for how a disease would move in a
population

● Understand the effects of the constant values and the bins in these disease models

● Interpret, critique, and extrapolate existing disease models

● Create a disease ecology model using the program Populus.

● Use the concept of R0 as it relates to disease transmission
o Note, we will be using the equation R0=Beta*S/(alpha+d+nu). This is
functionally equivalent to the equation given in the text. You don’t need to
memorize the equation, but should understand it

● Comment on disease evolution and how diseases are likely to evolve

● Describe how vaccination can change an epidemic

● Incorporate vaccination, isolation, quarantine, or other disease prevention methods,

or other disease factors into a disease ecology model.

● Discuss the public health challenges surrounding vaccination and vaccine hesitancy

● Communicate effectively about vaccination

One-minute Reflection:
What is unclear from our exploration of population ecology? What do you want to know
more about? Did anything surprise you? Relate the population ecology to disease
ecology. How are they similar? If you feel like it (and don’t have a problem with images
of lots of mice) watch this news story about what happened last year in Australia. How
does the population ecology material factor into this story? (density dependence, top
down, bottom up, exponential growth)