Social Network Predicts Exposure to Respiratory Infection in a Wild Chimpanzee Group.

ABSTRACT: Respiratory pathogens are expected to spread through social contacts, but outbreaks often occur quickly and unpredictably, making it challenging to simultaneously record social contact and disease incidence data, especially in wildlife. Thus, the role of social contacts in the spread of infectious disease is often treated as an assumption in disease simulation studies, and few studies have empirically demonstrated how pathogens spread through social networks. In July-August 2015, an outbreak of respiratory disease was observed in a wild chimpanzee community in Kibale National Park, Uganda, during an ongoing behavioral study of male chimpanzees, offering a rare opportunity to evaluate how social behavior affects individual exposure to socially transmissible diseases. From May to August 2015

SUBMITTER: Sandel AA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7786864 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature