Identifying Potential Super-Spreaders and Disease Transmission Hotspots Using White-Tailed Deer Scraping Networks
In: Animals, Vol 13, Iss 1171, p 1171 (2023, Jg. 13 (2023), Heft 1171, p 1171
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Zugriff:
White-tailed deer ( Odocoileus virginianus , WTD) spread communicable diseases such the zoonotic coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, which is a major public health concern, and chronic wasting disease (CWD), a fatal, highly contagious prion disease occurring in cervids. Currently, it is not well understood how WTD are spreading these diseases. In this paper, we speculate that “super-spreaders” mediate disease transmission via direct social interactions and indirectly via body fluids exchanged at scrape sites. Super-spreaders are infected individuals that infect more contacts than other infectious individuals within a population. In this study, we used network analysis from scrape visitation data to identify potential super-spreaders among multiple communities of a rural WTD herd. We combined local network communities to form a large region-wide social network consisting of 96 male WTD. Analysis of WTD bachelor groups and random network modeling demonstrated that scraping networks depict real social networks, allowing detection of direct and indirect contacts, which could spread diseases. Using this regional network, we model three major types of potential super-spreaders of communicable disease: in-degree, out-degree, and betweenness potential super-spreaders. We found out-degree and betweenness potential super-spreaders to be critical for disease transmission across multiple communities. Analysis of age structure revealed that potential super-spreaders were mostly young males, less than 2.5 years of age. We also used social network analysis to measure the outbreak potential across the landscape using a new technique to locate disease transmission hotspots. To model indirect transmission risk, we developed the first scrape-to-scrape network model demonstrating connectivity of scrape sites. Comparing scrape betweenness scores allowed us to locate high-risk transmission crossroads between communities. We also monitored predator activity, hunting activity, and hunter harvests to better understand how predation influences ...
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Identifying Potential Super-Spreaders and Disease Transmission Hotspots Using White-Tailed Deer Scraping Networks
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Autor/in / Beteiligte Person: | Hearst, Scoty ; Huang, Miranda ; Johnson, Bryant ; Rummells, Elijah |
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Zeitschrift: | Animals, Vol 13, Iss 1171, p 1171 (2023, Jg. 13 (2023), Heft 1171, p 1171 |
Veröffentlichung: | MDPI AG, 2023 |
Medientyp: | academicJournal |
ISSN: | 2076-2615 (print) |
DOI: | 10.3390/ani13071171 |
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