The sylvatic cycle, also
enzootic or sylvatic transmission cycle, is a portion of the natural transmission cycle of a
pathogen
In biology, a pathogen (, "suffering", "passion" and , "producer of"), in the oldest and broadest sense, is any organism or agent that can produce disease. A pathogen may also be referred to as an infectious agent, or simply a Germ theory of d ...
.
Sylvatic refers to the occurrence of a subject in or affecting wild animals. The sylvatic cycle is the fraction of the pathogen population's lifespan spent cycling between
wild animals and
vectors. Humans are usually an incidental or dead-end host, infected by a vector. This is opposed to a "domestic" or "urban" cycle, in which the pathogen cycles between vectors and non-wild, urban, or domestic animals; humans may have differing infection rates from these cycles due to transmission efficiencies and environmental exposure levels.
Examples of pathogens that contain a sylvatic cycle include
trichinosis,
dengue viruses, ''
Yersinia pestis'',
[Plague: Yersinia pestis](_blank)
Chagas disease,
and
rabies.
See also
*
Sylvatic plague
References
Parasitology
Epidemiology
{{pathology-stub