Resource-driven encounters among consumers and implications for the spread of infectious disease

Resource provisioning and supplemental feeding typically have profound effects on parasite transmission rates among hosts. Thus, understanding how host traits affect parasite transmission might provide a means for predicting which species experience greater infection risks with resource provisioning and supplemental feeding. Here, Daniel Becker, Daniel Streicker, and Sonia Altizer explored the effect of host dietary breadth, trophic level, pace of life, home range, and migratory status on infection rates where there is resource provisioning. By performing phylogenetic meta-analyses on viruses, bacteria, protozoa, fungi, helminths, and ectoparasites it was found that the effect of provisioning on infection varied widely among hosts. It was determined that host species traits related to movement ecology and feeding behavior are generally the most important predictors. They also found that when microparasites are being provisioned, dietary generalists with large home ranges demonstrated the largest increase of infection. Specifically, the top trait predictors for microparasites were home range, dietary breadth, pace of life, and migratory status. Provisioning type had small importance for microparasites. For helminths, provisioning type was the strongest predictor of effect sizes. Ectoparasites, on the other hand, were affected by the dietary breadth and home range size. This study provides a framework for predicting which wildlife species experience greater infection risk with resource provisioning.