Identifying Potential Super-Spreaders and Disease Transmission Hotspots Using White-Tailed Deer Scraping Networks
In: Animals (Basel, 2023
academicJournal
Zugriff:
SIMPLE SUMMARY: White-tailed deer (WTD) spread communicable diseases such as the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, which is a major public health concern, and chronic wasting disease (CWD), a fatal, highly contagious, brain disease occurring in species of the deer family. 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. Using social network analysis, we identified potential super-spreaders among multiple communities of a rural WTD herd in Mississippi. Analysis of age structure revealed that the majority of potential super-spreaders were young males, less than 2.5 years of age. We also compared infection risk across the landscape by combining social network analysis and heatmapping software to locate disease transmission hotspots, where the risk of disease transmission is higher as compared to other locations. We also monitored predator and hunting activity and hunter deer harvests to better understand how predators influence social networks and potential disease transmission. We found that predator activity influenced the age structure of male WTD communities. We assessed disease-management strategies by social-network modeling using hunter harvests or the removal of potential super-spreaders, which fragmented WTD social networks reducing the potential spread of disease. Overall, this study demonstrates a model for predicting potential super-spreaders of diseases, describes new methods to locate transmission hotspots, and provides new knowledge for disease management and prevention strategies. ABSTRACT: 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 ...
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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 (Basel, 2023 |
Veröffentlichung: | MDPI, 2023 |
Medientyp: | academicJournal |
DOI: | 10.3390/ani13071171 |
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