05 October 2015

Database of Host-Pathogen and Related Species Interactions, and Their Global Distribution

Authors Maya Wardeh, Claire Risley, Marie Kirsty McIntyre, Christian Setzkorn, and Matthew Baylis recently published an article with Scientific Data entitled “Database of host-pathogen and related species interactions, and their global distribution.” Communicable disease negatively impact human health and it is believed that they killed approximately nine million people in 20131 and caused approximately 565 million disability-adjusted life years2. Disability-adjusted life years includes years lost from premature death and years lived with a disability. It is unknown what impact communicable diseases have had on animals. It is important to understand the impact that communicable disease have on livestock for several reasons:
  • Animal welfare.
  • Livestock provide food, income, clothing, building materials, and draught power for people.
  • Animal disease is a potential source of human disease.
  • Communicable disease can cause fluctuations in wild animal populations and can negatively impact threatened and endangered species3. <http://www.nature.com/articles/sdata201549#ref8>

While communicable disease are important, few people have tried to construct comprehensive datasets. A comprehensive dataset can provide several benefits:
  • Estimating infectious disease burdens.
  • Quantifying disease characteristics (type of agent, zoonotic, etc).
  • Provide a baseline when studying the emergency of new diseases.

The authors of “Database of host-pathogen and related species interactions, and their global distribution” created a database of communicable disease and the locations in which they occur. Their dataset includes pathogen-host relationships, commensal/mutualistic relationships, and vector-host relationships. Their database is easily updated and free to access.

“Each node presents a vertebrate species. The size of the node is in proportion to the number of unique pathogen species found to interact with it. Edges between two nodes indicate they both share at least one possible pathogen species. The weight (thickness) of the edges is in proportion to the number of possible pathogen species shared between the two nodes. The location of each particular node corresponds to the size of all nodes in the graph and the weight of the edges linking this particular node with other nodes.” Wardeh et al., 2015.


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