The accelerated rate of disease emergence in recent decades underscores the need to understand conditions that promote or dampen epidemics. Theoretical models consistently show that epidemics are smaller in populations with higher among‐individual heterogeneity in susceptibility. Experimental tests of these predictions are rare but critical for understanding how heterogeneity in susceptibility shapes epidemics in natural syste...

Variability in acquired protection, whether from prior infection or vaccination, helps drive inter‐individual level variation in disease traits. It remains unclear, however, whether this extends to the within‐host regulatory environment and what the consequences are for reinfecting pathogens. Here, we asked whether prior pathogen exposure of hosts induces gene expression heterogeneity in host and/or pathogen during infection....

Sociality offers benefits to species that can enhance their fitness. However, pathogen transmission can be higher in larger groups, potentially negating the advantages of group living. Despite the important paradoxical effects of population density on disease impacts and recovery, the competing effects of density remain unexplored. Here, we examine the response of a social bat species to pathogen invasion by comparing the effe...

Environmental pathogen reservoirs exist for many globally important diseases and can fuel epidemics, influence pathogen evolution, and increase the threat of host extinction. Species composition can be an important factor that shapes reservoir dynamics and ultimately determines the outcome of a disease outbreak. However, disease‐induced mortality can change species communities, indicating that species responsible for environme...

Emerging infectious diseases have resulted in severe population declines across diverse taxa. In some instances, despite attributes associated with high extinction risk, disease emergence and host declines are followed by host stabilisation for unknown reasons. While host, pathogen, and the environment are recognised as important factors that interact to determine host–pathogen coexistence, they are often considered independen...

Disease dynamics during pathogen invasion and establishment determine the impacts of disease on host populations and determine the mechanisms of host persistence. Temporal progression of prevalence and infection intensity illustrate whether tolerance, resistance, reduced transmission, or demographic compensation allow initially declining populations to persist. We measured infection dynamics of the fungal pathogen Pseudogymnoa...

Aim We investigated the effects of disease on the local abundances and distributions of species at continental scales by examining the impacts of white‐nose syndrome, an infectious disease of hibernating bats, which has recently emerged in N orth A merica. Location N orth A merica and E urope. Methods We used four decades of population counts from 1108 populations to compare the local abundances of bats in N orth A merica befo...

Disease has caused striking declines in wildlife and threatens numerous species with extinction. Theory suggests that the ecology and density‐dependence of transmission dynamics can determine the probability of disease‐caused extinction, but few empirical studies have simultaneously examined multiple factors influencing disease impact. We show, in hibernating bats infected with Geomyces destructans , that impacts of disease on...