Experimental assessment of cross-species transmission in a natural multihost–multivector–multipathogen community

Vector-borne pathogens (VBPs), many of which cause major suffering worldwide, often circulate in diverse wildlife communities comprising multiple reservoir host and/or vector species. However, the complexities of these systems make it challenging to determine the contributions these different species make to transmission. We experimentally manipulated transmission within a natural multihost–multipathogen–multivector system, by blocking flea-borne pathogen transmission from either of two co-occurring host species (bank voles and wood mice). Through genetic analysis of the resulting infections in the hosts and vectors, we show that both host species likely act together to maintain the overall flea community, but cross-species pathogen transmission is relatively rare – most pathogens were predominantly found in only one host species, and there were few cases where targeted treatment affected pathogens in the other host species. However, we do provide experimental evidence of some reservoir..., As described in Methods section and Supplementary Information of associated paper., , # Experimental assessment of cross-species transmission in a natural multihost–multivector–multipathogen community

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.8cz8w9gxn](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.8cz8w9gxn)

Data collected from co-occurring bank voles and wood mice on sampling grids in the North West of England, May to December, 2013-2014.

## Description of the data and file structure

1) DATA TO CREATE FIG 1: Barplots of host and flea sharing by variants:
\- \"bart\_tryp\_table\.csv\":
Breakdown of number of samples of each Trypanosome species or Bartonella variant (column A), found in wood mice (col B) and bank voles (col C)
\- \"Flea\_Data\.csv\":
Breakdown of Bartonella variants (col B) found in fleas feeding on either wood mice or bank voles (col A).

2) DATA FILES TO CREATE FIG 2: GLMM model prediction plots for each parasite type in mice and voles on the different treatment grids
\- \"FLEA\_model\_dat\.csv\":
Data on flea infestion (presence/absence) on captured individual mice and voles (e...