Host range
Wat is meant by host range and what determines it?
Shannon Holfoth, Rachel Francis, Caitlin Moreland, Teresa Castiglione, and Katie VanUden write: Host range refers to the various compatible hosts that a parasitic organism can utilize and benefit from. This range of hosts is determined by host specificity. For example, parasites classified as monogeans have a host range that includes teleosts, elasmobranches, amphibians, and reptiles. Cestodes are found with all major groups of vertebrates, and digeneans are found in all groups of vertebrates.
In biology, a host is an organism that harbors a virus, parasite, mutual partner, or commensal partner, typically providing nourishment and shelter. The host range or host specificity of a parasite is the collection of hosts that an organism can utilize as a partner. In the case of human parasites, the host range influences the epidemiology of the parasitism or disease. For instance, the production of antigenic shifts in Influenza A virus can result from pigs being infected with the virus from several different hosts (such as human and bird). This co-infection provides an opportunity for mixing of the viral genes between existing strains, thereby producing a new viral strain. An influenza vaccine produced against an existing viral strain might not be effective against this new strain, which then requires a new influenza vaccine to be prepared for the protection of the human population.