Recent progress in the field of wildlife disease ecology demonstrates that infectious disease plays a crucial role in the lives of wild animals. Parasites and pathogens should be especially important for social animals in which high contact among individuals increases the potential for disease spread. As one of the best studied mammalian groups, primates offer a unique opportunity to examine how complex behaviours (including social organization) influence the risk of acquiring infectious diseases, and the defences used by animals to avoid infection. This book explores the correlates of disease risk in primates, including not only social and mating behaviour but also diet, habitat use, life history, geography and phylogeny. The authors examine how a core set of host and parasite traits influence patterns of parasitism at three levels of biological organization: among individuals, among populations, and across species. A major goal is to synthesize, for the first time, four disparate areas of research: primate behavioural ecology, parasite biology, wildlife epidemiology, and the behavioural and immune defences employed by animals to counter infectious disease. Throughout, the authors provide an overview of the remarkable diversity of infectious agents found in wild primate populations. Additional chapters consider how knowledge of infectious diseases in wild primates can inform efforts focused on primate conservation and human health. More generally, this book identifies infectious disease as an important frontier in our understanding of primate behaviour and ecology. It highlights future challenges for testing the links between host and parasite traits, including hypotheses for the effects of disease on primate social and mating systems.

About the Author
Charles Nunn is a research scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Integrative Biology at the University of California in Berkeley, USA. His research interests include primate behaviour, disease ecology and comparative biology. Sonia Altizer is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Ecology of the University of Georgia, USA . Her research focuses on the ecology and evolution of host-pathogen interactions in wild animal populations.

Reviews
[this book] is organized in nine chapters, each building upon the last, making it an excellent text for introducing the subject of primate pathogen biology to audiences coming from divergent backgrounds, but with a shared interest in the topic. I can attest to the success of this volume in this regard, having used it to lead a graduate seminar including participants from biological anthropology, epidemiology, ecology, and veterinary medicine. * Evolutionary Biology *
This is a useful book that includes an index, which is of practical interest for laboratories and zoos. * Michel Cuisin MAMMALIA *
I would highly recommend this book to behavioural scientists, veterinarians working with nonhuman primates in biomedical, zoological or field settings and to investigators utilizing nonhuman primates in their disease programs. American Journal of Primatology 69:1 (2007)
The nine chapters of this logically structured book will appeal to ecologists, evolutionary biologists, primatologists, and especially to students in these fields seeking a better understanding of disease biology, epidemiological principals, and comparative evolutionary analyses, On the whole, the publication of this book marks, if not the birth of a new field, its transition from childhood into adolescence. EcoHealth 2007.
This innovative book provides a comprehensive synthesis of the emerging and topical field of disease ecology. I thoroughly enjoyed it and highly recommend it to those with a passion for diseases or primates. * Raina K. Plowright, TRENDS in Ecology and Evolution (2006) *
... a structured and thoughtful synthesis of a field that has never before been unified ... On the whole, the publication of this book marks, if not the birth of a new field, its transition from childhood into adolescence. * EcoHealth 4, 231-233, May 2007 *



Book Information
ISBN 9780198565857
Author Charles Nunn
Format Paperback
Page Count 400
Imprint Oxford University Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Weight(grams) 706g
Dimensions(mm) 233mm * 157mm * 22mm