title: Badger social networks correlate with tuberculosis infection.
abstract: Although disease hosts are classically assumed to interact randomly [1], infection is likely to spread across structured and dynamic contact networks [2]. We used social network analyses to investigate contact patterns of group-living European badgers, Meles meles, which are an important wildlife reservoir of bovine tuberculosis (TB). We found that TB test-positive badgers were socially isolated from their own groups but were more important for flow, potentially of infection, between social groups. The distinctive social position of infected badgers may help explain how social stability mitigates, and social perturbation increases, the spread of infection in badgers.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Ecology and Conservation, College of Life & Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, Penryn Campus, Penryn TR10 9EZ, Cornwall, UK. Electronic address: n.l.weber@exeter.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Nicola
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Weber
authors.forename: Stephen P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Carter
authors.forename: Sasha R X
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Dall
authors.forename: Richard J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Delahay
authors.forename: Jennifer L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: McDonald
authors.forename: Stuart
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bearhop
authors.forename: Robbie A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: McDonald
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002417:Cattle; D004197:Disease Reservoirs / Q000382:microbiology; D004739:England / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D045969:Mustelidae / Q000382:microbiology / Q000502:physiology; D012919:Social Behavior; D014380:Tuberculosis, Bovine / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology / Q000635:transmission*