The sylvatic cycle, also enzootic or sylvatic transmission cycle, is a portion of the natural transmission cycle of a pathogen. The sylvatic cycle is the fraction of the pathogen population's lifespan spent cycling between wild animals and vectors. Humans are usually an incidental or dead-end host, infected by a vector. This is opposed to an "domestic", or "urban", cycle, in which the pathogen cycles between vectors and non-wild, urban, or domestic animals; humans may have differing infection rates from these cycles due to transmission efficiencies and environmental exposure levels.[1][2]
Examples of pathogens that contain a sylvatic cycle include trichinosis,[3] dengue viruses,[4] Yersinia pestis,[2], and Chagas disease[5][1]