Biology Bulletin · 2010 · 10 citations · 1 references
Veterinary MedicineBiologyInfectious DiseasesEpidemiologyInfectious Disease EpidemiologyParasitologyDisease EcologyDisease SpreadEmerging ZoonosesMedical ParasitologyZoonotic Disease TransmissionZoonotic InfectionsDisease FociHistory Of Infectious DiseaseNatural Foci Of InfectionVector-borne Disease DynamicsVector-borne Spread PatternsZoonotic Disease DynamicsZoonotic Vector-borne Disease
The theory of natural focality of human diseases, basically formulated by Academician E.N. Pavlovsky in 1939, invigorated research on plague, the disease whose epidemics had taken millions of lives in the past. Numerous studies in Russia and abroad have provided a great amount of data on the pathogen, its carriers, and vectors, specific features of infection spread and dynamics of activity of natural plague foci. Over a long period, plague was considered to be an obligate transmissible zoonosis. However, recent laboratory experiments and direct observations in natural foci of this infection indicate that plague is probably a zoophilous sapronosis.
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