Network analysis of pig movement data as an epidemiological tool: an Austrian case study.

ABSTRACT: Animal movements represent a major risk for the spread of infectious diseases in the domestic swine population. In this study, we adopted methods from social network analysis to explore pig trades in Austria. We used a dataset of daily records of swine movements covering the period 2015-2021. We analyzed the topology of the network and its structural changes over time, including seasonal and long-term variations in the pig production activities. Finally, we studied the temporal dynamics of the network community structure. Our findings show that the Austrian pig production was dominated by small-sized farms while spatial farm density was heterogeneous. The network exhibited a scale-free topology but was very sparse, suggesting a moderate impact of infectious disease outbreaks. However, two

SUBMITTER: Puspitarani GA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10267221 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature