title: Distinction and connection between contact network, social network, and disease transmission network.
abstract: In this paper we discuss the distinction and connection between three closely related networks in animal ecology and epidemiology studies: the contact, social, and disease transmission networks. We provide a robust theoretical definition and interpretation of these three networks, demonstrate that social and disease transmission networks can be derived as spanning subgraphs of contact network, and show examples based on real-world high-resolution cattle contact structure data. Furthermore, we establish a modeling framework to track potential disease transmission dynamics and construct transmission network based on the observed animal contact network.
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health Sciences, University of North Carolina Charlotte, Charlotte, NC, 28223, USA; Department of Population Health and Pathobiology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, 27607, USA. Electronic address: schen31@ncsu.edu.
authors.forename: Shi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Population Health and Pathobiology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, 27607, USA.
authors.forename: Cristina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lanzas
mesh_terms: D000822:Animal Husbandry; D000818:Animals; D002417:Cattle; D002418:Cattle Diseases / Q000635:transmission*
keywords: Animal contact network; Connection; Disease transmission network; Distinction; Social network