title: Feeder use predicts both acquisition and transmission of a contagious pathogen in a North American songbird.
abstract: Individual heterogeneity can influence the dynamics of infectious diseases in wildlife and humans alike. Thus, recent work has sought to identify behavioural characteristics that contribute disproportionately to individual variation in pathogen acquisition (super-receiving) or transmission (super-spreading). However, it remains unknown whether the same behaviours enhance both acquisition and transmission, a scenario likely to result in explosive epidemics. Here, we examined this possibility in an ecologically relevant host-pathogen system: house finches and their bacterial pathogen, Mycoplasma gallisepticum, which causes severe conjunctivitis. We examined behaviours likely to influence disease acquisition (feeder use, aggression, social network affiliations) in an observational field study, finding that the time an individual spends on bird feeders best predicted the risk of conjunctivitis. To test whether this behaviour also influences the likelihood of transmitting M. gallisepticum, we experimentally inoculated individuals based on feeding behaviour and tracked epidemics within captive flocks. As predicted, transmission was fastest when birds that spent the most time on feeders initiated the epidemic. Our results suggest that the same behaviour underlies both pathogen acquisition and transmission in this system and potentially others. Identifying individuals that exhibit such behaviours is critical for disease management.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061-0406, USA Natural Resource Ecology and Management Department, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011, USA.
authors.forename: James S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Adelman
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Virginia Tech, Derring Hall Room 2125, 1405 Perry Street, Blacksburg, VA 24061-0406, USA sahnzi@vt.edu.
authors.forename: Sahnzi C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Moyers
authors.affiliation: Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK Department of Anthropology, University of California Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Ancon, Panama.
authors.forename: Damien R
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2208-7613
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Farine
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061-0406, USA.
authors.forename: Dana M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Hawley
mesh_terms: D000374:Aggression; D000818:Animals; D001715:Bird Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000635:transmission; D003234:Conjunctivitis, Bacterial / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000635:transmission / Q000662:veterinary; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D046369:Finches / Q000382:microbiology*; D009175:Mycoplasma Infections / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000635:transmission / Q000662:veterinary*; D045686:Mycoplasma gallisepticum; D012919:Social Behavior
keywords: Mycoplasma gallisepticum; behavioural heterogeneity; disease transmission; house finch (Haemorhous mexicanus); super-receiver; super-spreader