[Natural foci of diseases: the development of the concept at the close of the century]

Abstract

E. N. Pavlovskiĭ's concept of natural focality of diseases and the development of general knowledge about natural foci and their structural (components), functional (mechanisms of pathogen maintenance), and ecosystem-related organization (assortment and interrelations of ecosystems) are reviewed from principal (in authors' opinion) aspects. The 60-year history of this theory includes three stages at which its scope and contents differed. At the first stage, it concerned transmissible zoonoses. It had been assumed that structurally, natural foci necessarily include the pathogen-vector-host triad, and the functioning of the focus is provided for by only pathogen circulation in terrestrial ecosystems. At the second stage, it became clear that vector is not a necessary structural component of any focus (an example of nontransmissible diseases), although the functioning of foci remained to be unequivocally attributed to the continuous pathogen circulation among animals of terrestrial ecosystems. The third stage is characterized by an understanding that, in general, the presence of a warm-blooded host in the focus is also unnecessary for pathogen survival, and natural foci can be represented by soil and aquatic ecosystems. The only necessary and specific component of any natural focus is the pathogen population. In this context, modern views on natural focality of diseases are reviewed, and the essence of the terms "natural focus" and "epizootic process" is defined. It is proposed to distinguish the phases of pathogen reservation and epizootic spread (circulation) in ecosystems of any type. The current state of this concept provides evidence that, in general biological terms, studies on natural focality of diseases belong to one of the fields of symbiotology.