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Cary Conference 2005
Rationale

Infectious diseases take an enormous toll on humans, wildlife, domestic animals, and both cultivated and native plants worldwide. In addition, new diseases arise, latent diseases emerge or re-emerge, and geographically delimited diseases jump oceans or other boundaries at alarming rates. Examples from the past five years alone include West Nile virus, Sudden Oak Death, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), new strains of avian influenza, and Monkeypox. In virtually every instance, a newly emerging infectious disease is recognized from a cluster of mysterious disease cases arising in a host population, followed by the elimination of well-known pathogens as potential causes, and finally the identification of a new pathogen or an 'old' one outside its known range. This is then followed by remedial action to prevent further spread of the disease. When the pathogen is specialized – largely restricted to one species of host – and is transmitted directly among individuals, the public health arsenal to battle disease – quarantine, vaccination, emergency public education – is usually effective. Recent examples include SARS and influenza. However, when the pathogen is more generalized – infects multiple hosts including asympomatic reservoirs – and/or is transmitted indirectly (e.g., by vectors or through environmental contact), then remedial action is much more problematic, and often outbreaks are followed by poorly contained spread with devastating consequences. Recent examples include West Nile virus in humans, horses, and wild birds; Sudden Oak Death; Ebola in humans and apes; Lyme disease; hantavirus pulmonary syndrome; and various transmissible spongiform encephalopathies of livestock, wildlife, and humans. We argue that the poor record of corrective actions in the case of some human, nonhuman animal, and plant diseases is a consequence of the ecological complexity involved in the evolution, transmission, and maintenance of these pathogens in nature. Governmental and other agencies charged with controlling such diseases lack sufficient information for ameliorating epidemics and controlling spread.

We are convening an intensive 3-day Cary Conference devoted to conceptually unifying and expanding our fast-developing understanding of the ecology of infectious disease, and perhaps more importantly, defining directions for new, innovative, and unified research efforts. We anticipate that a fruitful new direction for this field is in the unification of disease studies with community and ecosystem ecology. Because community and ecosystem ecology embrace some key elements relevant to infectious disease – complexity; systems thinking; large spatial and temporal scales of interactions; global environmental change; landscapes – we expect this conference to set the stage for rapid progress on the ground in anticipating and effectively managing the complex diseases of humans, wildlife, domestic animals, and both cultivated and native plants.