Assessing multiple free-roaming dog control strategies in a flexible agent-based model.

ABSTRACT: Management of free-roaming dog populations is required to mitigate the threat of pathogens like rabies, minimize conflict with people, wildlife, and livestock and improve dog welfare however there are multiple strategies currently employed including sterilization, vaccination, and lethal removal. This work describes an agent-based stochastic model, 'StreetDogSim' that can be used as a planning tool to investigate the predicted impact of different strategies with variable implementation approaches and adjustable parameters to match local conditions. Here, we explore the effects of different management strategies with additional variation in their duration, intensity, and vaccine quality on important population metrics such as overall size, demographics, vaccination coverage, time until effe

SUBMITTER: Yoak AJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10645819 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature