Dilution of Epidemic Potential of Environmentally Transmitted Infectious Diseases for Species with Partially Overlapping Habitats.

ABSTRACT: AbstractSpecies diversity may play an important role in the modulation of pathogen transmission through the dilution effect. Infectious disease models can help elucidate mechanisms that may underlie this effect. While many modeling studies have assumed direct host-to-host transmission, many pathogens are transmitted through the environment. We present a mathematical modeling analysis exploring conditions under which we observe the dilution effect in systems with environmental transmission where host species interact through fully or partially overlapping habitats. We measure the strength of the dilution effect by the relative decrease in the basic reproduction number of two-species assemblages compared with that of a focal host species. We find that a dilution effect is most likely when th

SUBMITTER: Espira LM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9136953 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature