Decoys and Dilution: The Impact of Incompetent Hosts on Prevalence of Chagas Disease

Biodiversity is commonly believed to reduce risk of vector-borne zoonoses. However, researchers already showed that the effect of biodiversity on disease transmission is not that straightforward. This study focuses on the effect of biodiversity, specifically on the effect of the decoy process (addit...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Bulletin of mathematical biology 2020-03, Vol.82 (3), p.41-41, Article 41
Main Authors: Zahid, Mondal Hasan, Kribs, Christopher M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biodiversity
Cell Biology
Chagas disease
Chickens
Decoys
Dilution
Disease
Disease transmission
Food sources
Infectious diseases
Life Sciences
Mathematical analysis
Mathematical and Computational Biology
Mathematical models
Mathematics
Mathematics and Statistics
Original Article
Predators
Risk management
Vector-borne diseases
Vectors
Vectors (Biology)
Zoonoses
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Summary:Biodiversity is commonly believed to reduce risk of vector-borne zoonoses. However, researchers already showed that the effect of biodiversity on disease transmission is not that straightforward. This study focuses on the effect of biodiversity, specifically on the effect of the decoy process (additional hosts distracting vectors from their focal host), on reducing infections of vector-borne diseases in humans. Here, we consider the specific case of Chagas disease and use mathematical population models to observe the impact on human infection of the proximity of chickens, which are incompetent hosts for the parasite but serve as a preferred food source for vectors. We consider three cases as the distance between the two host populations varies: short (when farmers bring chickens inside the home to protect them from predators), intermediate (close enough for vectors with one host to detect the presence of the other host type), and far (separate enclosed buildings such as a home and hen-house). Our analysis shows that the presence of chickens reduces parasite prevalence in humans only at an intermediate distance under the condition that the vector birth rate from feeding on chickens is sufficiently low.
ISSN:0092-8240
1522-9602
DOI:10.1007/s11538-020-00710-5