Trade-offs with telemetry-derived contact networks for infectious disease studies in wildlife.

ABSTRACT: Network analysis of infectious disease in wildlife can reveal traits or individuals critical to pathogen transmission and help inform disease management strategies. However, estimates of contact between animals are notoriously difficult to acquire. Researchers commonly use telemetry technologies to identify animal associations; but such data may have different sampling intervals and often captures a small subset of the population. The objectives of this study were to outline best practices for telemetry sampling in network studies of infectious disease by determining (1) the consequences of telemetry sampling on our ability to estimate network structure, (2) whether contact networks can be approximated using purely spatial contact definitions, and (3) how wildlife spatial configurations ma

SUBMITTER: Gilbertson MLJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7938897 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature