title: Comparison of ranging behaviour in a multi-species complex of free-ranging hosts of bovine tuberculosis in relation to their use as disease sentinels.
abstract: Sentinel species are increasingly used by disease managers to detect and monitor the prevalence of zoonotic diseases in wildlife populations. Characterizing home-range movements of sentinel hosts is thus important for developing improved disease surveillance methods, especially in systems where multiple host species co-exist. We studied ranging activity of major hosts of bovine tuberculosis (TB) in an upland habitat of New Zealand: we compared home-range coverage by ferrets (Mustela furo), wild deer (Cervus elaphus), feral pigs (Sus scrofa), brushtail possums (Trichosurus vulpecula) and free-ranging farmed cattle (Bos taurus). We also report in detail the proportional utilization of a seasonal (4-monthly) range area for the latter four species. Possums covered the smallest home range (<30 ha), ferrets covered ~100 ha, pigs ~4 km(2), deer and cattle both >30 km2. For any given weekly period, cattle, deer and pigs were shown to utilize 37–45% of their estimated 4-month range, while possums utilized 62% during any weekly period and 85% during any monthly period of their estimated 4-month range. We suggest that present means for estimating TB detection kernels, based on long-term range size estimates for possums and sentinel species, probably overstate the true local surveillance coverage per individual.
authors: Landcare Research, Lincoln, New Zealand.
authors: I J
authors: IJ
authors: Yockney
authors: G
authors: G
authors: Nugent
authors: M C
authors: MC
authors: Latham
authors: M
authors: M
authors: Perry
authors: M L
authors: ML
authors: Cross
authors: A E
authors: AE
authors: Byrom
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000835:Animals, Wild; D002417:Cattle; D003670:Deer; D004197:Disease Reservoirs / Q000662:veterinary*; D005289:Ferrets; D040362:Geographic Information Systems; D006702:Homing Behavior; D009163:Mycobacterium bovis; D009520:New Zealand; D012621:Seasons; D018571:Sentinel Surveillance / Q000662:veterinary*; D013552:Swine; D048330:Trichosurus; D014376:Tuberculosis / Q000662:veterinary; D014380:Tuberculosis, Bovine / Q000517:prevention & control*