Data from: Pathogens manipulate the preference of vectors, slowing disease spread in a multi-host system

The spread of vector‐borne pathogens depends on a complex set of
interactions among pathogen, vector, and host. In single‐host systems,
pathogens can induce changes in vector preferences for infected vs.
healthy hosts. Yet it is unclear if pathogens also induce changes in
vector preference among host species, and how changes in vector behaviour
alter the ecological dynamics of disease spread. Here, we couple
multi‐host preference experiments with a novel model of vector preference
general to both single and multi‐host communities. We show that
viruliferous aphids exhibit strong preferences for healthy and long‐lived
hosts. Coupling experimental results with modelling to account for
preference leads to a strong decrease in overall pathogen spread through
multi‐host communities due to non‐random sorting of viruliferous vectors
between preferred and non‐preferred host species. Our results demonstrate
the importance of the interplay between vector behaviour and host
diversity as a key mechanism in the spread of vectored‐diseases.