Immunome Research
Open Access

Am Felde 12, Schuettorf, 48465, Germany

Biography

Jan Slingenbergh, employs himself for disease ecology projects, as Independent Advisor, since 2012. Before that, he was Head of the FAO Emergency Prevention System for Animal Health. During his 20+ years in FAO HQs in Rome he was on the global Influenza management team, focal point in the Secretariat of the AU/FAO/IAEA/WHO Programme Against African Trypanosomoses and leader of the FAO international screwworm programme.

Publications

• Research Article   
  Outer to Inner-body Shifts in the Virus-Host Relationship for the Three Main Animal Host Domains of the World Today: Wildlife, Humans, and Livestock
  Author(s): Jan Slingenbergh*
  
  In wildlife, the natural reservoir host for most animal viruses, overt clinical infections are generally absent. In this paper it is hypothesized that for hundreds of millions of years viruses co-evolved with arthropods, fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals, in a friendly manner, by minimizing virus replication costs and host damage. This virus-host mutualism hypothesis may be viewed as diametrically opposite to the virulence transmission hypothesis. Building on previous work, the transmission ecologies of 36 of the world main livestock viruses are examined in more detail. Viruses and organ systems are aligned on ecological grounds, in an outer to inner-body fashion. The virus-host interplay changes from acute to persistent infection to ever more virus-host intimacy. From outer to inner-body virus-host mutualism is on the increase. Virus-host antagonism increases from inne.. View More»
  

  Abstract HTML PDF