Avian diversity and West Nile virus: testing associations between biodiversity and infectious disease risk

The emergence of several high profile infectious diseases in recent years has focused attention on our need to understand the ecological factors contributing to the spread of infectious diseases. West Nile virus (WNV) is a mosquito-borne zoonotic disease that was first detected in the United States...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Proceedings of the Royal Society. B, Biological sciences Vol. 273; no. 1582; pp. 109 - 117
Main Authors:	Ezenwa, V.O, Godsey, M.S, King, R.J, Guptill, S.C
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	London The Royal Society 07-01-2006
Subjects:	Animals Aves Biodiversity Birds Birds - genetics Birds - physiology Birds - virology Culex Culex - virology Data Interpretation, Statistical Dilution Effect disease incidence Disease models disease prevalence Disease vectors Epidemiology Geography Humans Infections insect vectors Mosquitos Passeriformes Passeriformes - genetics Passeriformes - virology Risk Factors Songbirds Species diversity Vector-Borne Disease viral encephalitis West Nile Fever - epidemiology West Nile Fever - transmission West Nile Fever - veterinary West Nile Virus Zoonoses Louisiana USA
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Summary:	The emergence of several high profile infectious diseases in recent years has focused attention on our need to understand the ecological factors contributing to the spread of infectious diseases. West Nile virus (WNV) is a mosquito-borne zoonotic disease that was first detected in the United States in 1999. The factors accounting for variation in the prevalence of WNV are poorly understood, but recent ideas suggesting links between high biodiversity and reduced vector-borne disease risk may help account for distribution patterns of this disease. Since wild birds are the primary reservoir hosts for WNV, we tested associations between passerine (Passeriform) bird diversity, non-passerine (all other orders) bird diversity and virus infection rates in mosquitoes and humans to examine the extent to which bird diversity is associated with WNV infection risk. We found that non-passerine species richness (number of non-passerine species) was significantly negatively correlated with both mosquito and human infection rates, whereas there was no significant association between passerine species richness and any measure of infection risk. Our findings suggest that non-passerine diversity may play a role in dampening WNV amplification rates in mosquitoes, minimizing human disease risk.
Bibliography:	http://www.journals.royalsoc.ac.uk/link.asp?id=102024 ark:/67375/V84-C56SKP6H-S ArticleID:rspb20053284 istex:9488B8E7E6A48B1242BE3A66ECAE20C07CB992DF href:109.pdf ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23
ISSN:	0962-8452 1471-2954
DOI:	10.1098/rspb.2005.3284