Identifying the age cohort responsible for transmission in a natural outbreak of Bordetella bronchiseptica.

ABSTRACT: Identifying the major routes of disease transmission and reservoirs of infection are needed to increase our understanding of disease dynamics and improve disease control. Despite this, transmission events are rarely observed directly. Here we had the unique opportunity to study natural transmission of Bordetella bronchiseptica--a directly transmitted respiratory pathogen with a wide mammalian host range, including sporadic infection of humans--within a commercial rabbitry to evaluate the relative effects of sex and age on the transmission dynamics therein. We did this by developing an a priori set of hypotheses outlining how natural B. bronchiseptica infections may be transmitted between rabbits. We discriminated between these hypotheses by using force-of-infection estimates coupled with r

SUBMITTER: Long GH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3002977 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature