Defining Environmental Factors

Abstract

Some diseases are restricted in occurrence to one or more sharply defined foci but these represent only the most extreme examples of a general principle that each disease occurs in a particular type of environment or niche, and that most diseases have a somewhat restricted geographical distribution. The study of the localization or nidality (from the Latin nidus for nest) of diseases has been termed “landscape epidemiology” (Pavlovsky, 1966). This discipline was developed for the study of infectious zoonotic diseases (Audy, 1956) but the principles and techniques are applicable to both infectious and non-infectious diseases of wild animals.

“We believe that providing a set of rigid rules for inventorying and monitoring wildlife habitat would be presumptuous since nature itself is complex, diverse and dynamic.” (Cooperrider et al., 1986)