Reservoir hosts experiencing food stress alter transmission dynamics for a zoonotic pathogen

Anthropogenic environmental change can significantly alter availability and quality of food resources for reservoir hosts and impact host-pathogen interactions in the wild. The state of the host’s nutritional reserves as time of infection is a key factor influencing infection outcomes by altering host resistance. Here we combine experimental and model-based approaches to better understand how an environmental stressor affects host resistance to West Nile virus (WNV). Using American robins (Turdus migratorius), a species considered a superspreader of WNV, we tested the effect of acute food deprivation immediately prior to infection on host viremia. Our results show that robins food deprived of food for 48 hours prior to infection, developed higher virus titers and were infectious longer than robins fed normally. To gain understanding about the epidemiological significance of food stressed hosts, we developed an agent-based model that simulates transmission dynamics of WNV between the avi...