Individual fish infection data from metapopulation epidemics used to calculate resistance, tolerance and competence

Host competence, defined as the likelihood that a host will transmit infection, may be affected by an individual’s resistance to infection and its ability to withstand damage caused by infection (tolerance). Host competence may therefore be one of the most important factors to impact host-parasite dynamics, yet the relationships among resistance, tolerance, and competence are poorly understood.  The objective of the present study was to determine whether individual host resistance (ability to resist or minimize infection) and/or tolerance (ability to withstand or minimize reduction in fitness due to infection) contributed to the competence (ability to spread infection) of hosts using guppies infected with the ectoparasite, Gyrodactylus turnbulli. This individual-fish level analysis used data collected from a previous metapopulation experiment that had tracked host-parasite dynamics at the metapopulation scale using individually marked guppies that were moved among experimental tanks wit...

宿主传播能力（Host competence）被定义为宿主完成感染传播的可能性，其易受个体的感染抗性以及耐受感染所致损伤的能力（耐受力，tolerance）影响。因此，宿主传播能力或许是调控宿主-寄生虫动态的关键因子之一，但目前学界对感染抗性、耐受力与传播能力三者间的内在关联仍知之甚少。本研究旨在以感染体外寄生虫（ectoparasite）Gyrodactylus turnbulli的孔雀鱼（guppies）为实验模型，明确个体宿主的感染抗性（抵抗或减轻感染负荷的能力）与/或耐受力（耐受或缓解感染导致的适合度下降的能力）是否会对宿主的传播能力（感染扩散能力）产生贡献。本项基于单条鱼类水平的分析，所用数据源自此前一项集合种群（metapopulation）实验：该实验通过对个体标记的孔雀鱼进行跨实验养殖箱转移，在集合种群尺度下追踪宿主-寄生虫动态……