ReviewVeterinary research2015
Bridge hosts, a missing link for disease ecology in multi-host systems.
Review in Veterinary research, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 83 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
83 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Influence of Host and Landscape-Associated Factors in the Infection and Transmission of Pathogens: The Case of Directly Transmitted Virus in Mammals.Veterinary medicine and science · 2025Pooled it
- A need for null models in understanding disease transmission: the example of Mycobacterium ulcerans (Buruli ulcer disease).FEMS microbiology reviews · 2022Pooled it
- Human risk factors associated with the presence of antibodies againstOne health (Amsterdam, Netherlands) · 2026Article
- Spillover dynamics and asynchronous temporal fluctuations in host density and competence drive fungal parasite persistence in multi-host, seasonal communities.The Journal of animal ecology · 2026Article
- Will there be a warning for the next pandemic?Science advances · 2026Article
- Climate-Sensitive Redistribution of Veterinary Parasites: An Attribution Framework for One Health Surveillance and Control.Biology · 2026Review
- Invasive plasmids as ecosystem engineers-from mechanism to application.Essays in biochemistry · 2026Review
- Invasive Alien Species of European Union Concern: A Systematic Review of High-Priority Pathogens in 22 Species in a One Health Framework.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2026Review
- Differential Susceptibility May Not Drive Chytridiomycosis Related Declines in Multi-Host Amphibian Communities.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Absence of hepatitis E virus in hedgehogs in northern Italy in 2022-2024.Virology journal · 2026Article
- Parasitiformes (ticks) and Acariformes (mites) vectors and their vertebrate host diversity: A global scoping review.One health (Amsterdam, Netherlands) · 2025Review
- The Effect of Climate Change on Emergence and Evolution of Zoonotic Diseases in Asia.Zoonoses and public health · 2025Review
- Poultry farm density and proximity drive highly pathogenic avian influenza spread.Communications biology · 2025Article
- Abundance and diversity of host-seeking adult female mosquitoes in a coastal ecosystem in southern Mexico.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2025Article
- Detection of avian, murine, bovine, shrew, and bat coronaviruses in wild mammals from Mexico.Virology journal · 2025Article
- Emergence, migration and spreading of the high pathogenicity avian influenza virus H5NX of the Gs/Gd lineage into America.The Journal of general virology · 2025Review
- Foot-and-mouth disease dynamics in multi-species livestock systems at the interface of African protected areas.Veterinary research · 2025Article
- Limited transmission of avian influenza viruses, avulaviruses, coronaviruses and Chlamydia sp. at the interface between wild birds and a free-range duck farm.Veterinary research · 2025Article
- Pet and Stray Dogs' Contribution to Zoonotic Transmission Pathways: A Bibliometric Review.Transboundary and emerging diseases · 2025Review
- Habitat sharing and interspecies interactions in caves used by bats in the Republic of Congo.PeerJ · 2025Article
23 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
In ecology, the grouping of species into functional groups has played a valuable role in simplifying ecological complexity. In epidemiology, further clarifications of epidemiological functions are needed: while host roles may be defined, they are often used loosely, partly because of a lack of clarity on the relationships between a host's function and its epidemiological role. Here we focus on the definition of bridge hosts and their epidemiological consequences. Bridge hosts provide a link through which pathogens can be transmitted from maintenance host populations or communities to receptive populations that people want to protect (i.e., target hosts). A bridge host should (1) be competent for the pathogen or able to mechanically transmit it; and (2) come into direct contact or share habitat with both maintenance and target populations. Demonstration of bridging requires an operational framework that integrates ecological and epidemiological approaches. We illustrate this framework using the example of the transmission of Avian Influenza Viruses across wild bird/poultry interfaces in Africa and discuss a range of other examples that demonstrate the usefulness of our definition for other multi-host systems. Bridge hosts can be particularly important for understanding and managing infectious disease dynamics in multi-host systems at wildlife/domestic/human interfaces, including emerging infections.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.