Understanding the Interrelationships Between Botanical, Human, and Veterinary Epidemiology: The Ys and Rs of It All

Epidemiology is concerned with disease dynamics within host populations. The botanical (plant disease), human (medical), and veterinary fields of epidemiology all have a common lineage in that all three disciplines share ecology as a common parent, yet all three fields have also evolved from a practical need to better manage diseases in their respective host populations. The analysis of botanical, human, and veterinary epidemics shares six common steps: 1) Defining disease problems in quantitative terms (attainable production or attainable population health minus the current production or population health management level presently being achieved); 2) Quantifying state and rate variables of pathosystem components (pathosystem analysis) to determine the effect of host, pathogen, and vector populations on the rate of pathogen spread (r), and the source and strength of inoculum reservoirs (y0); 3) Identifying the most effective management strategy(ies) (i.e., reduce y0, r, and/or t) to achieve effective control; 4) Developing and then quantifying the impacts of specific and integrated management tactics on disease dynamics as a means to evaluate a proposed disease management strategy or strategies; 5) Integrating management tactics into management programs and reevaluating the epidemiologic impacts of whole disease management programs on pathosystem dynamics, and finally; 6) Assessing the economic and environmental risks versus the actual benefits achieved by implementing integrated disease management programs. Although the botanical, human, and veterinary fields of epidemiology share many common concepts, the terminology used to express these concepts within the different disciplines has evolved different dialects (operational definitions) as well as different approaches to solve epidemiologic questions. By improving communication among epidemiologists who work mostly within their own disciplines (botanical, medical, and veterinary branches of epidemiology), we can better understand not only our own pathosystems, but we can vastly improve our understanding of disease dynamics at the ecosystem and global scales as well.