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  • Mixed-species assemblages and disease: the importance of differential vector and parasite attraction in transmission dynamics
Title: Mixed-species assemblages and disease: the importance of differential vector and parasite attraction in transmission dynamics
Individuals from multiple species often aggregate at resources, group to facilitate defense and foraging, or are brought together by human activity. While it is well-documented that host-seeking disease vectors and parasites show biases in their responses to cues from different hosts, the influence of mixed-species assemblages on disease dynamics has received limited attention. Here, we synthesize relevant research in host-specific vector and parasite bias. To better understand how vector and parasite biases influence infection, we provide a conceptual framework describing cue-oriented vector and parasite host-seeking behaviour as a two-stage process that encompasses attraction of these enemies to the assemblage and their choice of hosts once at the assemblage. We illustrate this framework, developing a case study of mixed-species frog assemblages, where frog-biting midges transmit trypanosomes. Finally, we present a mathematical model that investigates how host species composition and asymmetries in vector attraction modulate transmission dynamics in mixed-species assemblages. We argue that differential attraction of vectors by hosts can have important consequences for disease transmission within mixed-species assemblages, with implications for wildlife conservation and zoonotic disease.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
2054636
PAR ID:
10484580
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ;
Publisher / Repository:
The Royal Society Publishing
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
Volume:
378
Issue:
1878
ISSN:
0962-8436
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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