Department of Zoology, 11a Mansfield Road, Oxford OX1 3SZ, UK.
Department of Zoology, 11a Mansfield Road, Oxford OX1 3SZ, UK.
Trends Parasitol. 2021 May;37(5):391-400. doi: 10.1016/j.pt.2020.12.001. Epub 2021 Jan 5.
Blood-sucking insects are important vectors of disease, with biting Diptera (flies) alone transmitting diseases that cause an estimated 700 000 human deaths a year. Insect vectors also bite nonhuman hosts, linking them into host-biting networks. While the major vectors of prominent diseases, such as malaria, yellow fever, dengue, and Zika, are intensively studied, there has been limited focus on the wider interactions of biting insects with nonhuman hosts. Drawing on network analysis and visualisation approaches from food-web ecology, we discuss the value of a network perspective for understanding host-insect-disease interactions, with a focus on Diptera vectors. Potential applications include highlighting pathways of disease transmission, highlighting reservoirs of infection, and identifying emerging and previously unrecognised vectors.
吸血昆虫是疾病的重要传播媒介，仅叮咬双翅目（苍蝇）就可传播导致每年约 70 万人死亡的疾病。昆虫媒介还会叮咬非人类宿主，将它们联系在一起形成宿主叮咬网络。虽然对疟疾、黄热病、登革热和寨卡热等主要疾病的主要传播媒介进行了深入研究，但对吸血昆虫与非人类宿主的更广泛相互作用关注有限。借鉴食物网生态学中的网络分析和可视化方法，我们讨论了从网络角度理解宿主-昆虫-疾病相互作用的价值，重点是双翅目传播媒介。潜在的应用包括突出疾病传播途径、突出感染储存库以及识别新出现和以前未被识别的传播媒介。
