Department of Biology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
Med Vet Entomol. 2023 Dec;37(4):675-682. doi: 10.1111/mve.12671. Epub 2023 Jun 1.
Biting flies (Diptera) transmit pathogens that cause many important diseases in humans as well as domestic and wild animals. The networks of feeding interactions linking these insects to their hosts, and how they vary geographically and in response to human land-use, are currently poorly documented but are relevant to understanding cross-species disease transmission. We compiled a database of biting Diptera-host interactions from the literature to investigate how key interaction network metrics vary latitudinally and with human land-use. Interaction evenness and H2' (a measure of the degree of network specificity) did not vary significantly with latitude. Compared to near-natural habitats, interaction evenness was significantly lower in agricultural habitats, where networks were dominated by relatively few species pairs, but there was no evidence that the presence of humans and their domesticated animals within networks led to systematic shifts in network structure. We discuss the epidemiological relevance of these results and the implications for predicting and mitigating future spill-over events.
吸血蝇（双翅目）传播病原体，导致人类以及家养和野生动物患上许多重要疾病。这些昆虫与宿主之间的摄食相互作用网络，以及它们如何在地理上和对人类土地利用做出响应，目前记录甚少，但与了解跨物种疾病传播有关。我们从文献中编译了一个吸血蝇-宿主相互作用数据库，以研究关键的相互作用网络指标如何随纬度和人类土地利用而变化。相互作用均匀度和 H2'（衡量网络特异性的程度）与纬度没有显著变化。与近自然栖息地相比，农业栖息地的相互作用均匀度显著降低，其中网络主要由相对较少的物种对主导，但没有证据表明网络中人类及其驯化动物的存在会导致网络结构的系统变化。我们讨论了这些结果的流行病学意义及其对预测和减轻未来溢出事件的影响。
