"Vertebrate hosts" refers to animals that have a backbone, like mammals, birds, reptiles, and fish, which can be infected or carry a disease-causing organism. Full definition
Still, the two major human malaria parasite species, Plasmodium falciparum and P. vivax, are restricted in their «choice» of vertebrate host. (scientificamerican.com)
Some specialized diets, such as ectoparasitism (insects feeding on vertebrate hosts), evolve rarely and act as evolutionary traps, from which other diets do not easily evolve, whilst others, such as predation and fungivory, evolve frequently and readily give rise to other dietary types. (amnat.org)
«If you go into a forest, you have hundreds of meters separating one vertebrate host from another, and hundreds of meters would be several kilometers for us,» Oliveira says. (sciencenews.org)