Summary
This field study used DNA metabarcoding of blood meals from 7,095 biting flies (42 species) to characterise how anthropogenic habitat modification alters networks linking biting Diptera vectors to their hosts across a gradient of landscape modification in rural Ghana. Less modified habitats supported higher species richness of both vectors and hosts, whilst heavily modified habitats showed increased network connectance. Humans were embedded in 68% of detected blood meals, and the competent disease vector Culex watti acted as a high-betweenness connector species across all habitat types, potentially facilitating zoonotic pathogen transmission between human and wild animal reservoirs via bridge vectors.
Regional applicability
The findings are geographically specific to rural Ghana and may have limited direct applicability to United Kingdom conditions, where climate, vector species composition and landscape configuration differ markedly. However, the methodological approach (DNA metabarcoding of vector blood meals to map host-pathogen networks) and conceptual insights regarding how agricultural intensification reshapes vector-host interactions may inform UK surveillance of emerging vector-borne diseases, particularly in light of climate-driven range expansions of biting Diptera.
Key measures
Biting Diptera species richness and abundance; vertebrate host species detected in blood meals; network metrics (specificity, connectance, betweenness-centrality); human detection frequency in blood meals (68%); Culex watti abundance and network centrality across habitat types
Outcomes reported
The study documented bipartite networks of interactions between biting flies and their vertebrate hosts (humans, livestock, wild animals) across village, agricultural and near-natural habitats using DNA metabarcoding of blood meals. Network metrics including species richness, diversity, specificity and connectance were compared across habitat modification gradients.
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