title: Blood thicker than water: kinship, disease prevalence and group size drive divergent patterns of infection risk in a social mammal.
abstract: The importance of social- and kin-structuring of populations for the transmission of wildlife disease is widely assumed but poorly described. Social structure can help dilute risks of transmission for group members, and is relatively easy to measure, but kin-association represents a further level of population sub-structure that is harder to measure, particularly when association behaviours happen underground. Here, using epidemiological and molecular genetic data from a wild, high-density population of the European badger (Meles meles), we quantify the risks of infection with Mycobacterium bovis (the causative agent of tuberculosis) in cubs. The risk declines with increasing size of its social group, but this net dilution effect conceals divergent patterns of infection risk. Cubs only enjoy reduced risk when social groups have a higher proportion of test-negative individuals. Cubs suffer higher infection risk in social groups containing resident infectious adults, and these risks are exaggerated when cubs and infectious adults are closely related. We further identify key differences in infection risk associated with resident infectious males and females. We link our results to parent-offspring interactions and other kin-biased association, but also consider the possibility that susceptibility to infection is heritable. These patterns of infection risk help to explain the observation of a herd immunity effect in badgers following low-intensity vaccination campaigns. They also reveal kinship and kin-association to be important, and often hidden, drivers of disease transmission in social mammals.
authors.affiliation: Animal and Plant Health Agency, National Wildlife Management Centre, Woodchester Park, Gloucestershire, UK Centre for Ecology and Conservation, College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, Penryn Campus, Cornwall, UK chw208@exeter.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Clare H
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-5564-1137
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Benton
authors.affiliation: Animal and Plant Health Agency, National Wildlife Management Centre, Woodchester Park, Gloucestershire, UK.
authors.forename: Richard J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Delahay
authors.affiliation: Animal and Plant Health Agency, National Wildlife Management Centre, Woodchester Park, Gloucestershire, UK Environment and Sustainability Institute, University of Exeter, Penryn Campus, Cornwall, UK.
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-3720-6670
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Robertson
authors.affiliation: Environment and Sustainability Institute, University of Exeter, Penryn Campus, Cornwall, UK.
authors.forename: Robbie A
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-6922-3195
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: McDonald
authors.affiliation: Centre for Ecology and Conservation, College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, Penryn Campus, Cornwall, UK.
authors.forename: Alastair J
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-5045-2051
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Wilson
authors.affiliation: University of Sheffield, Western Bank, Sheffield, UK.
authors.forename: Terry A
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-3848-1244
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Burke
authors.affiliation: Centre for Ecology and Conservation, College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, Penryn Campus, Cornwall, UK d.j.hodgson@exeter.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Dave
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-4220-2076
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hodgson
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D045969:Mustelidae / Q000382:microbiology*; D009163:Mycobacterium bovis; D011156:Population Density; D015995:Prevalence; D012919:Social Behavior; D014376:Tuberculosis / Q000635:transmission*
keywords: European badger; bovine tuberculosis; infection risk; kin structure; relatedness; social structure