Recent advances in quantitative genetic and genomic studies have shed light on the important role of genetic control strategies for reducing disease risk and severity in livestock populations. There are two alternative host defence strategies to infectious pathogens that could be enhanced by genetic selection: improvement of host resistance versus improvement of host tolerance to infectious pathogens. Resistance refers to mechanisms that restrict the reproduction rate of a pathogen within a host, whilst tolerance mechanisms focus on minimising the damage that a pathogen inflicts on the host. Both strategies may have a similar impact on individual host fitness and performance, but can have contrasting effects on population performance and disease risk and severity. For example, improving host resistance may result in successful eradication of a disease from a livestock population, whereas disease eradication may be difficult if hosts are tolerant as these can harbour the pathogen without showing obvious or severe symptoms. On the other hand, it has been argued that increasing host resistance would fuel the arms race between host and pathogen and stimulate pathogen evolution towards higher virulence. Increasing tolerance, in contrast, imposes no or little selection pressure on the pathogen. Further, whereas disease resistance mechanisms may be specific to a particular pathogen (e.g. development of specific antibodies), tolerance mechanisms that repair damaged tissues are associated with the host rather than the pathogen, and are thus more likely to be generic to a range of pathogens. Hence, improving tolerance may be beneficial if individuals are exposed to a variety of pathogens or pathogen strains, and disease eradication has proven difficult. In contrast to evolutionary biology and plant breeding, animal breeding has only recently started to seriously consider a distinction between disease resistance and tolerance and their consequences. However, a deeper understanding of the underlying mechanisms and implications of improving either or both of the host defence mechanisms on future disease risk and severity is urgently needed by animal scientists, veterinarians and breeders to make informed decisions that help to maintain healthy livestock populations and guarantee food security. The topic ‘genetic improvement of disease resistance v tolerance’ would lend itself to research papers covering a variety of aspects that need to be considered, such as ‘how to obtain genetic parameter estimates and genomic breeding values related to disease resistance / tolerance’, ‘evidence for host genetic influence of resistance or tolerance’, ‘genetic, genomic and immunological understanding of resistance / tolerance mechanisms’, ‘epidemiological consequences of improving disease resistance / tolerance’. I believe that this research topic is both timely and relevant, and that sufficient knowledge is available across disciplines for composing valuable research / review articles that stimulate interest to a wide range of readers of Frontiers, and thus promote the growth of this journal.

The Second Autumn Course on Mathematical Ecology was held at the Intern ational Centre for Theoretical Physics in Trieste, Italy in November and December of 1986. During the four year period that had elapsed since the First Autumn Course on Mathematical Ecology, sufficient progress had been made in applied mathemat ical ecology to merit tilting the balance maintained between theoretical aspects and applications in the 1982 Course toward applications. The course format, while similar to that of the first Autumn Course on Mathematical Ecology, consequently focused upon applications of mathematical ecology. Current areas of application are almost as diverse as the spectrum covered by ecology. The topiys of this book reflect this diversity and were chosen because of perceived interest and utility to developing countries. Topical lectures began with foundational material mostly derived from Math ematical Ecology: An Introduction (a compilation of the lectures of the 1982 course published by Springer-Verlag in this series, Volume 17) and, when possible, progressed to the frontiers of research. In addition to the course lectures, workshops were arranged for small groups to supplement and enhance the learning experience. Other perspectives were provided through presentations by course participants and speakers at the associated Research Conference. Many of the research papers are in a companion volume, Mathematical Ecology: Proceedings Trieste 1986, published by World Scientific Press in 1988. This book is structured primarily by application area. Part II provides an introduction to mathematical and statistical applications in resource management.

Addressing principles associated with breeding animals for enhanced health and resistance to specific diseases, this book provides a review of the field illustrated with examples covering many diseases of importance to livestock production, across all major livestock species. Authored by experts in the field, this updated edition covers techniques and approaches, viruses, TSEs, bacteria, parasites, vectors, and broader health issues seen in production systems, including metabolic diseases. The book will be an essential reference for professionals in the field, scientists and researchers, students, breeders, veterinarians, agricultural advisors and policy makers.

This book explains how to translate biological assumptions into mathematics to construct useful and consistent models, and how to use the biological interpretation and mathematical reasoning to analyze these models. It shows how to relate models to data through statistical inference, and how to gain important insights into infectious disease dynamics by translating mathematical results back to biology.

Genetics and Breeding for Disease Resistance of Livestock is a solid resource that combines important information on the underlying genetic causes and governing factors for disease resistance in food animals and applications for breeding purposes. It describes genomics at each species level to help researchers and students understand disease resistance and immunology using genomics and its application in breeding for disease resistance. This useful reference makes it easy for readers to understand and undergo further research in immunology and disease resistance for livestock. It includes novel applications and research material that is ideal for students, teachers, academicians and researchers. - Presents basic principles and protocols to describe research methodologies through diagrammatic illustrations with figures, flow charts, examples, and references - Covers various disease occurrences in livestock and the methodologies available to identify the various pathogens responsible for these diseases - Includes advanced breeding techniques and practical applications

The evolution of metazoans has been accompanied by new interfaces with the microbial environment that include biological barriers and surveillance by specialized cell types. Increasingly complex organisms require increased capacities to confront pathogens, achieved by co-evolution of recognition mechanisms and regulatory pathways. Two distinct but interactive forms of immunity have evolved. Innate immunity, shared by all metazoans, is traditionally viewed as simple and non-specific. Adaptive immunity possesses the capacity to anticipate new infectious challenges and recall previous exposures; the most well-understood example of such a system, exhibited by lymphocytes of vertebrates, is based on somatic gene alterations that generate extraordinary specificity in discrimination of molecular structures. Our understanding of immune phylogeny over the past decades has tried to reconcile immunity from a vertebrate standpoint. While informative, such approaches cannot completely address the complex nature of selective pressures brought to bear by the complex microbiota (including pathogens) that co-exist with all metazoans. In recent years, comparative studies (and new technologies) have broadened our concepts of immunity from a systems-wide perspective. Unexpected findings, e.g., genetic expansions of innate receptors, high levels of polymorphism, RNA-based forms of generating diversity, adaptive evolution and functional divergence of gene families and the recognition of novel mediators of adaptive immunity, prompt us to reconsider the very nature of immunity. Even fundamental paradigms as to how the jawed vertebrate adaptive immune system should be structured for “optimal” recognition potential have been disrupted more than once (e.g., the discovery of the multicluster organization and germline joining of immunoglobulin genes in sharks, gene conversion as a mechanism of somatic diversification, absence of IgM or MHC II in certain teleost fishes). Mechanistically, concepts of innate immune memory, often referred to as “trained memory,” have been realized further, with the development of new discoveries in studies of epigenetic regulation of somatic lineages. Immune systems innovate and adapt in a taxon-specific manner, driven by the complexity of interactions with microbial symbionts (commensals, mutualists and pathogens). Immune systems are shaped by selective forces that reflect consequences of dynamic interactions with microbial environments as well as a capacity for rapid change that can be facilitated by genomic instabilities. We have learned that characterizing receptors and receptor interactions is not necessarily the most significant component in understanding the evolution of immunity. Rather, such a subject needs to be understood from a more global perspective and will necessitate re-consideration of the physical barriers that afford protection and the developmental processes that create them. By far, the most significant paradigm shifts in our understanding of immunity and the infection process has been that microbes no longer are considered to be an automatic cause or consequence of illness, but rather integral components of normal physiology and homeostasis. Immune phylogeny has been shaped not only by an arms race with pathogens but also perhaps by mutualistic interactions with resident microbes. This Research Topic updates and extends the previous eBook on Changing Views of the Evolution of Immunity and contains peer-reviewed submissions of original research, reviews and opinions.

The new Animal Genetics and Disease 2017 conference committee organized a Research Topic for the proceedings of this inaugural conference. The meeting brought together specialists working on the interface between genomics, genetic engineering, and infectious disease, with the aims of improving animal and human health and welfare. This conference was funded by Advanced Courses and Scientific Conference at the Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton, UK. The conference will highlight breakthroughs in genomic technologies that are rapidly increasing our understanding of the fundamental role that host and pathogen genetics play in infections and epidemics. This Research Topic focuses on how infections spread and how they further affect the productivity of livestock systems and food supply chains. Thanks to technological advances, we now have the tools for real-time surveillance of zoonoses affecting wildlife, farm animals and animal-to-human disease transmission.