Disease ecology explores the spatiotemporal dynamics and evolution of diseases (e.g. viral, bacterial, fungal) in natural and managed ecosystems. Challenges for NIOO are to identify (a)biotic factors involved in the emergence and persistence of, to assess the impact of diseases on the reproduction and survival of their hosts and to understand and predict the impact of environmental disturbances on the distribution and dynamics of infectious diseases. Our aims are:
We have joined the Netherlands Centre of One Health (www.ncoh.nl) to team up with universities and medical centers working on Wildlife & Ecosystem Health and Antimicrobial Resistance.
Bird flu has many different sides to it. Wild birds have better protection by nature, but on the other hand, they are 'accused' to bring it to poultry farms, thus causing a lot of damage. NIOO sticks to the facts and publishes ecofactsheets: an ecology based summary with all the facts explained to a wider audience. This bird-flu factsheet is the one we published in 2014 after an outbreak.