Discussion

The epidemiology of zoonotic diseases may involve both wild animals and livestock. The burden of zoonotic disease falls disproportionately on those from resource-poor countries. Identifying key reservoir hosts is crucial for control efforts, and understanding disease dynamics within those hosts can also make significant contributions to our understanding of the processes driving transmission and epidemiology in natural populations. Focussing on two diseases that involve small mammals as reservoirs, plague and leptospirosis, I will use ecological, epidemiological and genetic data from Madagascar to examine the potential complexities of epidemiological cycles that involve multiple host species, the challenges posed in researching such systems and some of the key drivers of transmission rates.