Arbovirus infection increases with group size
Charles R. Brown,Nicholas Komar,Sunita B. Quick,Rajni A. Sethi,Nicholas A. Panella,Mary Bromberger Brown,Martin Pfeffer +6 more
TL;DR: To the authors' knowledge this is the first demonstration of arbovirus infection increasing with group size and one of the few known predictive ecological relationships between an arBovirus and its vectors/hosts.
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Abstract: Buggy Creek (BCR) virus is an arthropod-borne alphavirus that is naturally transmitted to its vertebrate host the cliff swallow (Petrochelidon pyrrhonota) by an invertebrate vector, namely the cimicid swallow bug (Oeciacus vicarius). We examined how the prevalence of the virus varied with the group size of both its vector and host. The study was conducted in southwestern Nebraska where cliff swallows breed in colonies ranging from one to 3700 nests and the bug populations at a site vary directly with the cliff swallow colony size. The percentage of cliff swallow nests containing bugs infected with BCR virus increased significantly with colony size at a site in the current year and at the site in the previous year. This result could not be explained by differences in the bug sampling methods, date of sampling, sample size of the bugs, age structure of the bugs or the presence of an alternate host, the house sparrow (Passer domesticus). Colony sites that were reused by cliff swallows showed a positive autocorrelation in the percentage of nests with infected bugs between year t and year t+1, but the spatial autocorrelation broke down for year t+2. The increased prevalence of BCR virus at larger cliff swallow colonies probably reflects the larger bug populations there, which are less likely to decline in size and lead to virus extinction. To the authors' knowledge this is the first demonstration of arbovirus infection increasing with group size and one of the few known predictive ecological relationships between an arbovirus and its vectors/hosts. The results have implications for both understanding the fitness consequences of coloniality for cliff swallows and understanding the temporal and spatial variation in arboviral epidemics.
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Parasite infection and host group size: a meta-analytical review
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Does animal behavior underlie covariation between hosts' exposure to infectious agents and susceptibility to infection? Implications for disease dynamics.
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Empirical measurement of parasite transmission between groups in a colonial bird
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References
Role of the Cliff Swallow Bug (Oeciacus Vicarius) in the Natural Cycle of a Western Equine Encephalitis-Related Alphavirus
TL;DR: Isolation of virus strains from the nest-inhabiting Cliff Swallow ectoparasites during each season of the year reveals that the swallow nest bugs can support the endemic persistence of this virus in Colorado, suggesting a possible overwintering mechanism for North American alphaviruses.
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Group-living and the richness of the parasite fauna in Canadian freshwater fishes
TL;DR: It is suggested that a richer ectoparasite fauna is not a cost of group-living in fishes, because no significant effect of sociality is found on the richness of the parasite fauna per fish species, for contagious ectiparasites and other types of parasites.
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A field study on the effects of Fort Morgan virus, an arbovirus transmitted by swallow bugs, on the reproductive success of cliff swallows and symbiotic house sparrows in Morgan County, Colorado, 1976.
TL;DR: It is concluded that nestling Cliff Swallows and symbiotic House Sparrows that reside in swallow nesting colonies are the principal vertebrate hosts for the maintenance and amplification of FM virus.
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Natural vertical transmission of western equine encephalomyelitis virus in mosquitoes
TL;DR: Vertical transmission in Ae.
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Recovery of Tonate virus ("Bijou Bridge" strain), a member of the Venezuelan equine encephalomyelitis virus complex, from cliff swallow nest bugs (Oeciacus vicarius) and nestling birds in North America.
Thomas P. Monath,Lazuick Js,C B Cropp,W. A. Rush,Calisher Ch,Richard M. Kinney,Dennis W. Trent,G E Kemp,G. S. Bowen,Francy Db +9 more
TL;DR: A second virus with distinct biological, serological, and physiochemical properties was detected as a minority viral subpopulation in specimens of Cliff Swallow nest bugs and nestling bird sera containing Fort Morgan virus, previously isolated from birds and mosquitoes only in French Guiana.
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