Environment determines the distribution and prevalence of vector-borne pathogens due to its direct and indirect effects on the hosts, vectors, and pathogens. To investigate the relationship between Usutu virus occurrence and host biodiversity and to characterize the nidus of infection, we used field-based measures of host diversity and density (all birds and only passerines), vector abundance, landscape and Usutu virus prevalence (mosquito infection rate), an emergent disease with a similar cycle to West Nile virus. We collected 908,237 female mosquitoes in an area of 54,984 ha in the Doñana National Park, southern Spain. We identified the mosquitoes and screened them for viruses, censused birds, characterized landscape and climatic variables, and then modeled the presence and infection rate of the virus in relation to host, vector, climatic, and landscape variables. Monthly Usutu presence, detected in Culex perexiguus, was positively related to Passeriformes richness and secondarily to NDVI in the previous month. Our results suggest that Usutu prevalence may be higher when and where host (passerine) richness was high, and thus challenging the conventional idea that host biodiversity reduces flavivirus amplification.

中文翻译：

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雀形目鸟类充当Usutu病毒传播的放大宿主的证据。

环境决定了媒介传播的病原体对宿主，媒介和病原体的直接和间接影响，决定了媒介传播的病原体的分布和流行。为了调查Usutu病毒的发生与宿主生物多样性之间的关系并表征感染的病原体，我们使用了基于现场的宿主多样性和密度（所有鸟类和仅雀形目），媒介丰度，景观和Usutu病毒流行率（蚊子感染率）的量度），一种与西尼罗河病毒相似周期的紧急疾病。我们在西班牙南部的多纳纳国家公园（DoñanaNational Park）占地54,984公顷的区域内收集了908,237只雌性蚊子。我们确定了蚊子，并对它们进行了病毒，人口普查的鸟类的筛选，确定了景观和气候变量，然后对病毒的存在和感染率进行了建模，涉及宿主，媒介，气候，和景观变量。每月Usutu的存在，在上月库蚊（Culex perexiguus）与Passeriformes的丰富度呈正相关，其次与NDVI呈正相关。我们的研究结果表明，当寄主（pass鱼）丰富度较高时，Usutu患病率可能更高，因此对寄主生物多样性减少黄病毒扩增的传统观念提出了挑战。