Demographic processes drive increases in wildlife disease following population reduction.

ABSTRACT: Population reduction is often used as a control strategy when managing infectious diseases in wildlife populations in order to reduce host density below a critical threshold. However, population reduction can disrupt existing social and demographic structures leading to changes in observed host behaviour that may result in enhanced disease transmission. Such effects have been observed in several disease systems, notably badgers and bovine tuberculosis. Here we characterise the fundamental properties of disease systems for which such effects undermine the disease control benefits of population reduction. By quantifying the size of response to population reduction in terms of enhanced transmission within a generic non-spatial model, the properties of disease systems in which such effects red

SUBMITTER: Prentice JC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4008369 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature