Abstract
There is little doubt evolution has played a major role in preventing the control of infectious disease through antibiotic and insecticide resistance, but recent theory suggests disease interventions such as vaccination may lead to evolution of more harmful parasites. A new study published in PLOS Biology by Andrew Read and colleagues shows empirically that vaccination against Marek’s disease has favored higher virulence; without intervention, the birds die too quickly for any transmission to occur, but vaccinated hosts can both stay alive longer and shed the virus. This is an elegant empirical demonstration of how evolutionary theory can predict potentially dangerous responses of infectious disease to human interventions.
Highlights
Of particular importance is that the theory predicts that there is the potential for certain disease interventions, including certain types of vaccination, to select for the evolution of greater virulence and present a greater threat to their hosts [7]
Read et al have provided a direct empirical test of one of the key theoretical predictions that “imperfect” vaccination can select for higher virulence [8]
The key message of the detailed modeling is that leaky vaccination, which reduces the impact of the disease and thereby lowers pathogenicity, selects for a higher growth rate in the parasite, leading to a greater transmission rate and higher virulence [7]
Summary
Of particular importance is that the theory predicts that there is the potential for certain disease interventions, including certain types of vaccination, to select for the evolution of greater virulence (cause higher mortality) and present a greater threat to their hosts [7]. Read et al have provided a direct empirical test of one of the key theoretical predictions that “imperfect” vaccination can select for higher virulence [8].
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