Roche Benjamin, Benbow M. E., Merritt R., Kimbirauskas R., McIntosh M., Small P. L. C., Williamson H., Guégan Jean-François. (2013). Identifying the Achilles heel of multi-host pathogens : the concept of keystone 'host' species illustrated by Mycobacterium ulcerans transmission. Environmental Research Letters, 8 (4), art. 045009. ISSN 1748-9326.
Titre du document
Identifying the Achilles heel of multi-host pathogens : the concept of keystone 'host' species illustrated by Mycobacterium ulcerans transmission
Roche Benjamin, Benbow M. E., Merritt R., Kimbirauskas R., McIntosh M., Small P. L. C., Williamson H., Guégan Jean-François
Source
Environmental Research Letters, 2013,
8 (4), art. 045009 ISSN 1748-9326
Pathogens that use multiple host species are an increasing public health issue due to their complex transmission, which makes them difficult to mitigate. Here, we explore the possibility of using networks of ecological interactions among potential host species to identify the particular disease-source species to target to break down transmission of such pathogens. We fit a mathematical model on prevalence data of Mycobacterium ulcerans in western Africa and we show that removing the most abundant taxa for this category of pathogen is not an optimal strategy to decrease the transmission of the mycobacterium within aquatic ecosystems. On the contrary, we reveal that the removal of some taxa, especially Oligochaeta worms, can clearly reduce rates of pathogen transmission, and these should be considered as keystone organisms for its transmission because they lead to a substantial reduction in pathogen prevalence regardless of the network topology. Besides their potential application for the understanding of M. ulcerans ecology, we discuss how networks of species interactions can modulate transmission of multi-host pathogens.
Plan de classement
Entomologie médicale / Parasitologie / Virologie [052]
;
Etudes, transformation, conservation du milieu naturel [082]
