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Ecological correlates of risk and incidence of West Nile virus in the United States

Overview of attention for article published in Oecologia, October 2008
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About this Attention Score

  • In the top 25% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (97th percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (94th percentile)

Mentioned by

news
2 news outlets
blogs
1 blog
policy
1 policy source

Citations

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197 Dimensions

Readers on

mendeley
301 Mendeley
connotea
1 Connotea
Title
Ecological correlates of risk and incidence of West Nile virus in the United States
Published in
Oecologia, October 2008
DOI 10.1007/s00442-008-1169-9
Pubmed ID
Authors

Brian F. Allan, R. Brian Langerhans, Wade A. Ryberg, William J. Landesman, Nicholas W. Griffin, Rachael S. Katz, Brad J. Oberle, Michele R. Schutzenhofer, Kristina N. Smyth, Annabelle de St. Maurice, Larry Clark, Kevin R. Crooks, Daniel E. Hernandez, Robert G. McLean, Richard S. Ostfeld, Jonathan M. Chase

Abstract

West Nile virus, which was recently introduced to North America, is a mosquito-borne pathogen that infects a wide range of vertebrate hosts, including humans. Several species of birds appear to be the primary reservoir hosts, whereas other bird species, as well as other vertebrate species, can be infected but are less competent reservoirs. One hypothesis regarding the transmission dynamics of West Nile virus suggests that high bird diversity reduces West Nile virus transmission because mosquito blood-meals are distributed across a wide range of bird species, many of which have low reservoir competence. One mechanism by which this hypothesis can operate is that high-diversity bird communities might have lower community-competence, defined as the sum of the product of each species' abundance and its reservoir competence index value. Additional hypotheses posit that West Nile virus transmission will be reduced when either: (1) abundance of mosquito vectors is low; or (2) human population density is low. We assessed these hypotheses at two spatial scales: a regional scale near Saint Louis, MO, and a national scale (continental USA). We found that prevalence of West Nile virus infection in mosquito vectors and in humans increased with decreasing bird diversity and with increasing reservoir competence of the bird community. Our results suggest that conservation of avian diversity might help ameliorate the current West Nile virus epidemic in the USA.

Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 301 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
United States 15 5%
United Kingdom 2 <1%
Italy 2 <1%
Colombia 1 <1%
Ireland 1 <1%
France 1 <1%
Germany 1 <1%
Brazil 1 <1%
Switzerland 1 <1%
Other 2 <1%
Unknown 274 91%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Researcher 66 22%
Student > Ph. D. Student 55 18%
Student > Master 39 13%
Student > Bachelor 34 11%
Student > Doctoral Student 19 6%
Other 58 19%
Unknown 30 10%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 161 53%
Environmental Science 47 16%
Medicine and Dentistry 13 4%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 9 3%
Earth and Planetary Sciences 5 2%
Other 26 9%
Unknown 40 13%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 29. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 30 December 2020.
All research outputs
#1,169,086
of 22,963,381 outputs
Outputs from Oecologia
#120
of 4,229 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#2,698
of 91,573 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Oecologia
#1
of 19 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 22,963,381 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 94th percentile: it's in the top 10% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 4,229 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a little more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 7.0. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 97% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 91,573 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 97% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 19 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 94% of its contemporaries.