Arthropod vectors and vector-borne pathogens: Know your enemy for not succumbing the battle

Several pathogens of agricultural, medical, and veterinary importance depend for their survival on being able to spread from a host to another fairly frequently. One of the strategies adopted by such organisms to accomplish this vital step of their life cycle is being “transported” by vectors. A vector can be defined as “the most mobile host within a multi-hosts transmission cycle” (Wilson et al. 2017). The main role of a vector in this transmission cycle is indeed permitting the parasite to move from a sessile host to another. A continuum of interactions, ranging from deleterious to mutually beneficial, may define the relationship between a pathogen and its vector/s (Purcell, 1982). The vector, the pathogen it transmits and the host, are bound together by a web of complex interactions.