Articles

Primates and the Ecology of their Infectious Diseases: How will Anthropogenic Change Affect Host-Parasite Interactions?

  1. Colin A. Chapman†,‡,*,
  2. Thomas R. Gillespie§,
  3. Tony L. Goldberg

Article first published online: 25 AUG 2005

DOI: 10.1002/evan.20068

Issue

Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews

Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews

Volume 14, Issue 4, pages 134–144, July/August 2005

Additional Information

How to Cite

Chapman, C. A., Gillespie, T. R. and Goldberg, T. L. (2005), Primates and the Ecology of their Infectious Diseases: How will Anthropogenic Change Affect Host-Parasite Interactions?. Evol. Anthropol., 14: 134–144. doi: 10.1002/evan.20068

Author Information

  1. Anthropology Department and McGill School of Environment, 855 Sherbrooke St West, McGill University, Montreal, Canada, H3A 2T7

  1. †

    Colin A. Chapman has conducted field work in the Caribbean and Costa Rica, and now has established a long-term research program in Kibale National Park, Uganda. Trained in both anthropology and zoology, his research focuses on attempts to understand what determines the abundance of primates in a variety of natural and human-modified settings and the impact of primate loss. Having examined nutritional constraints on primate populations, he is now turning to the examination of whether dietary stress adversely affects resistance to parasitic infection by reducing the effectiveness of the immune system. If this occurs, nutritional status and parasitism could have synergistic effects on the host; that is, the individual effects of each factor would be amplified when co-occurring.

  2. ‡

    Tel.: +1-514-398-1242; fax: +1-514-398-1643

  3. §

    Thomas R. Gillespie is Director of the Earth and Society Initiative on Emerging Disease and Ecosystem Health and a member of the Faculty of Anthropology and Veterinary Pathobiology at the University of Illinois. His primary research examines how anthropogenic disturbance affects primate ecology and behavior, with a focus on primate-parasite and primate-disease dynamics.

  4. Tony L. Goldberg is a disease ecologist with a focus on conservation medicine. Trained in anthropology, epidemiology, molecular biology, and veterinary medicine, his research examines the interactions between anthropogenic environmental change and the emergence and evolution of infectious disease in humans, wildlife, and domestic animals. He currently uses molecular techniques to infer patterns of transmission for viral and bacterial pathogens within and among host species over complex landscapes and over time. He conducts field work on humans and nonhuman primates in Africa, as well as on wild fishes and domestic livestock in North America.

*Anthropology Department and McGill School of Environment, 855 Sherbrooke St West, McGill University, Montreal, Canada, H3A 2T7

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 25 AUG 2005
  2. Article first published online: 25 AUG 2005

Funded by

  • Wildlife Conservation Society
  • National Science Foundation (USA)
  • Morris Animal Foundation
  • National Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC, Canada)
  • National Center for Environmental Research of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
  • Morris Animal Foundation
  • William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
  • University of Illinois Office of International Studies

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Keywords:

  • parasites;
  • viruses;
  • pathogens;
  • hunting;
  • logging;
  • climate change;
  • conservation

Abstract

The sudden appearance of diseases like SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome1), the devastating impacts of diseases like Ebola on both human and wildlife communities,2, 3 and the immense social and economic costs created by viruses like HIV4 underscore our need to understand the ecology of infectious diseases. Given that monkeys and apes often share parasites with humans, understanding the ecology of infectious diseases in nonhuman primates is of paramount importance. This is well illustrated by the HIV viruses, the causative agents of human AIDS, which evolved recently from related viruses of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and sooty mangabeys (Cercocebus atys5), as well as by the outbreaks of Ebola virus, which trace their origins to zoonotic transmissions from local apes.6 A consideration of how environmental change may promote contact between humans and nonhuman primates and thus increase the possibility of sharing infectious diseases detrimental to humans or nonhuman primates is now paramount in conservation and human health planning.

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