Natural reservoir
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Natural reservoir or nidus (the latter from the Latin word for "nest") refers to the long-term host of the pathogen of an infectious disease. It is often the case that hosts do not get the disease carried by the pathogen or it is carried as a subclinical infection and so asymptomatic and non-lethal. Once discovered, natural reservoirs elucidate the complete life cycle of infectious diseases, providing effective prevention and control. Examples of natural reservoirs are:
- Field mice, for hantaviruses and Lassa fever
- Marmots, black rats, prairie dogs, chipmunks and squirrels for bubonic plague
- Armadillos and opossums for Chagas disease and several species of New World Leishmania
- Ticks for babesiosis and Rocky Mountain spotted fever
- Ground squirrels, porcupines, and chipmunks for Colorado tick fever
- Mosquitoes for filariasis and malaria
- Snails for schistosomiasis and swimmer's itch
- Pigs for cestode worm infections
- Raccoons, skunks, foxes and bats for rabies
- Shellfish for cholera
- Fowl (ducks and geese) for avian influenza
- Bats, the reservoir for nipah, hendra, rabies and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)
- Dogs and wild canids for Leishmania infantum, the cause of infantile visceral leishmaniasis
- Cats, for Bartonella (aka Cat scratch disease)
- Gerbils for Leishmania major, the causative agent of cutaneous leishmaniasis in the Old World
- Rock hyrax for Leishmania aethiopica and, probably, certain strains of Leishmania tropica, the causative agents of cutaneous leishmaniasis in the Old World
Some diseases have no non-human reservoir: poliomyelitis and smallpox are prominent examples.
The natural reservoir of some diseases remain unknown. This is the case of the Ebola disease, which is caused by a virus.
