Coinfections in wildlife: Focus on a neglected aspect of infectious disease epidemiology

Emerging infectious diseases represent a global and major health problem. The understanding of biological processes involved in the transmission and evolution of infectious agents in host reservoirs is critical Disease ecology has, therefore, become an important area of research, aiming at investigating the interactions between infectious agents, their hosts, and environments. Interactions between infectious agents exploiting the same vertebrate host at the same time (coinfections) can affect disease outcomes and transmissibility. In this paper, we review this point, as this could have significant consequences on zoonoses emergence.