Evidence that Passerine Birds Act as Amplifying Hosts for Usutu Virus Circulation

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.