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Rate of intersexual interactions affects injury likelihood in Tasmanian devil contact networks
Citation
Hamilton, DG and Jones, ME and Cameron, EZ and McCallum, H and Storfer, A and Hohenlohe, PA and Hamede, RK, Rate of intersexual interactions affects injury likelihood in Tasmanian devil contact networks, Behavioral Ecology, 30, (4) pp. 1087-1095. ISSN 1045-2249 (2019) [Refereed Article]
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Copyright Statement
Copyright The Author(s) 2019. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Society for Behavioral Ecology. All rights reserved.
DOI: doi:10.1093/beheco/arz054
Abstract
Identifying the types of contacts that result in disease transmission is important for accurately modelling and predicting transmission dynamics and disease spread in wild populations. We investigated contacts within a population of adult Tasmanian devils (Sarcophilus harrisii) over a six-month period and tested whether individual-level contact patterns were correlated with accumulation of bite wounds. Bite wounds are important in the spread of devil facial tumour disease (DFTD), a clonal cancer cell line transmitted through direct inoculation of tumour cells when susceptible and infected individuals bite each other. We used multi-model inference and network autocorrelation models to investigate the effects of individual-level contact patterns, identities of interacting partners, and position within the social network on the propensity to be involved in bite-inducing contacts. We found that males were more likely to receive potentially disease-transmitting bite wounds than females, particularly during the mating season when males spend extended periods mate-guarding females. The number of bite wounds individuals received during the mating season was unrelated to any of the network metrics examined. Our approach illustrates the necessity for understanding which contact types spread disease in different systems to assist the management of this and other infectious wildlife diseases.
Item Details
| Item Type: | Refereed Article |
|---|---|
| Keywords: | Tasmanian devil, devil facial tumour disease, wildlife disease, infectious disease, disease transmission, behaviour, network analysis |
| Research Division: | Biological Sciences |
| Research Group: | Ecology |
| Research Field: | Behavioural ecology |
| Objective Division: | Environmental Management |
| Objective Group: | Terrestrial systems and management |
| Objective Field: | Control of pests, diseases and exotic species in terrestrial environments |
| UTAS Author: | Hamilton, DG (Mr David Hamilton) |
| UTAS Author: | Jones, ME (Professor Menna Jones) |
| UTAS Author: | Cameron, EZ (Professor Elissa Cameron) |
| UTAS Author: | Hamede, RK (Dr Rodrigo Hamede Ross) |
| ID Code: | 130721 |
| Year Published: | 2019 |
| Web of Science® Times Cited: | 17 |
| Deposited By: | Zoology |
| Deposited On: | 2019-02-08 |
| Last Modified: | 2020-07-21 |
| Downloads: | 30 View Download Statistics |
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