Nunn, C. Behavioural defences against sexually transmitted diseases in primates. Skorping, A. Disease dynamics: all caused by males?
Trends in ecology and evolution. Adamo, S. A viral aphrodisiac in the cricket Gryllus texensis. The Journal of Experimental Biology. You are commenting using your WordPress. You are commenting using your Google account. You are commenting using your Twitter account. You are commenting using your Facebook account. Notify me of new comments via email. Notify me of new posts via email. Like this: Like Loading Hi Emma, here are some scientific articles on the subject: Graves, B.
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Close Encounters of the Natural Kind Join 1, other followers. A bacterial infection that can betreated with antibiotics, the disease can be transmitted sexually or otherwise; for example, groups of cattle often eat the placenta of a spontaneously aborted fetus, and they can acquire the disease that way. Symptoms of the disease include miscarriage, inflammation of the testes, and uterine infections. Humans can contract brucellosis through drinking contaminated milk or through direct contact with infected animals.
Because brucellosis is so prevalent and so dangerous to people, animal professionals are careful to watch for the disease. Another STD that humans and other animals share is chlamydia, a bacterial infection that has been found in a wide variety of species including many mammals, birds, and reptiles.
Unfortunately for animals, Chlamydiapsittaci can also be transmitted through mucous membranes such as the eyes and urogenital tract, so mothers can give it to newborns and males can become infected through fighting. Birds often contract clamydia when eggs touch the mother's fecal material during egg-laying. As with humans, the disease can seriously damage the reproductive system, causing infertility, abortion, inflammation of the testicles, and sterility, as well as high fevers and problems in the respiratory and digestive systems.
In Australia, researchers have been working on a chlamydia vaccine for koalas, which may also be a step towards development of a human vaccine.
Peter Timms and Ken Beagley from Queensland University of Technology's Institute of Healthand Biomedical Innovation spent years developing a vaccine for humans; when they saw a widespread chlamydia outbreak among the local koala population, the researchers turned their efforts to protecting the animals.
Timms says that while the disease has also been reported in other animals in the region, including bandicoots and possums, koalas have been the most affected.
The marsupials are known for their active sex lives, and as many as 50 percent of the koalas treated at the university have shown signs of the sexually transmitted disease. They occurred in groups as diverse as mammals, reptiles, arachnids, insects, molluscs and nematodes. Sexually transmitted pathogens included protozoans, fungi, nematodes, helminths, and cancerous cell lines, as well as bacteria and viruses.
Detailed comparison of the characteristics of sexually transmitted mammalian diseases with those that are transmitted by non-sexual means, showed that STDs cause less mortality, are longer-lived in their hosts, are less likely to invoke strong immune responses, have narrower host-ranges, and show less fluctuation in prevalence over time.
These shared features are related to mode of transmission rather than either host or pathogen taxonomic affiliation. This suggests an evolutionary explanation based on shared ecologies rather than one based on phylogenetic history.
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