title: Social Network Analysis of Cattle Movement in Sukhothai Province, Thailand: A Study to Improve Control Measurements.
abstract: The aim of this study is to analyse the pattern of cattle movement in Sukhothai province, Thailand. A validated questionnaire was applied to 308 respondents related to cattle farming using one-step snowball sampling. The results showed that most of the nodes are farmers who move their animals in the province. The average normalized degree centrality and normalized closeness centrality were low (<0.01 and 0.04, resp.). We found that traders are the nodes with a high value of centrality. This corresponds with the cutpoint analysis results that traders are outstanding. In conclusion, the relevant authorities should focus on the nodes such as traders for controlling disease. However, a measure to detect disease in the early stages needs to be implemented.
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterinary Public Health, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Kasetsart University, Kamphaeng Saen Campus, Nakhon Pathom 73140, Thailand; Department of Livestock Development, Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, Bangkok 10400, Thailand.
authors.forename: Supot
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Noopataya
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterinary Public Health, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Kasetsart University, Kamphaeng Saen Campus, Nakhon Pathom 73140, Thailand.
authors.forename: Sukanya
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Thongratsakul
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterinary Public Health, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Kasetsart University, Kamphaeng Saen Campus, Nakhon Pathom 73140, Thailand.
authors.forename: Chaithep
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-2968-9182
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Poolkhet