Social buffering and contact transmission: network connections have beneficial and detrimental effects on Shigella infection risk among captive rhesus macaques.

ABSTRACT: In social animals, group living may impact the risk of infectious disease acquisition in two ways. On the one hand, social connectedness puts individuals at greater risk or susceptibility for acquiring enteric pathogens via contact-mediated transmission. Yet conversely, in strongly bonded societies like humans and some nonhuman primates, having close connections and strong social ties of support can also socially buffer individuals against susceptibility or transmissibility of infectious agents. Using social network analyses, we assessed the potentially competing roles of contact-mediated transmission and social buffering on the risk of infection from an enteric bacterial pathogen (Shigella flexneri) among captive groups of rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta). Our results indica

SUBMITTER: Balasubramaniam K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5088628 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature