Elbers Armin R W, Gonzales José L
Department of Epidemiology, Bioinformatics and Animal Studies, Wageningen Bioveterinary Research, 8200 AB Lelystad, The Netherlands.
Insects. 2023 Jul 14;14(7):637. doi: 10.3390/insects14070637.
The vector/host ratio and host preference are important parameters for the modelling of vector-borne livestock diseases. It can be anticipated that abundance is not homogeneously distributed in the landscape. We investigated the influence of host species (dairy cow, sheep, and a light-trap (LT) as a surrogate host) and distance of measurement to hosts on abundance using a randomized block-design with 12 measuring days and seven 3-min aerial sweep-netting sessions per whole hour at three distances to the host (0, 10, and 25 m), from five hours before to and including one hour after sunset. Dairy cows were found to be a far stronger attractor of midges than sheep, while both hosts were far stronger attractors of midges than the LT. abundance declined significantly with increasing distance from the livestock hosts; this phenomenon was much stronger for dairy cows than for ewes. In contrast, abundance increased with increasing distance from the LT, pin-pointing the apparent shortcomings of the LT as a surrogate host to lure midges. Our data indicate that livestock host species and the distance from these hosts have a profound effect on abundance in the landscape.
媒介/宿主比例和宿主偏好是媒介传播的家畜疾病建模的重要参数。可以预期，其丰度在景观中并非均匀分布。我们使用随机区组设计，在日落前5小时至日落包括日落后1小时的时间段内，在三个距离宿主（0、10和25米）处，每小时进行12个测量日和7次3分钟的空中扫网采样，研究宿主物种（奶牛、绵羊以及作为替代宿主的灯光诱捕器（LT））和测量点到宿主的距离对其丰度的影响。结果发现，奶牛比绵羊对蠓的吸引力要强得多，而这两种宿主对蠓的吸引力都比灯光诱捕器强得多。其丰度随着与家畜宿主距离的增加而显著下降；这种现象在奶牛身上比在母羊身上更为明显。相比之下，其丰度随着与灯光诱捕器距离的增加而增加，这突出了灯光诱捕器作为诱捕蠓的替代宿主的明显缺点。我们的数据表明，家畜宿主物种以及与这些宿主的距离对景观中的其丰度有深远影响。
