title: Behavioural phenotypes predict disease susceptibility and infectiousness.
abstract: Behavioural phenotypes may provide a means for identifying individuals that disproportionally contribute to disease spread and epizootic outbreaks. For example, bolder phenotypes may experience greater exposure and susceptibility to pathogenic infection because of distinct interactions with conspecifics and their environment. We tested the value of behavioural phenotypes in larval amphibians for predicting ranavirus transmission in experimental trials. We found that behavioural phenotypes characterized by latency-to-food and swimming profiles were predictive of disease susceptibility and infectiousness defined as the capacity of an infected host to transmit an infection by contacts. While viral shedding rates were positively associated with transmission, we also found an inverse relationship between contacts and infections. Together these results suggest intrinsic traits that influence behaviour and the quantity of pathogens shed during conspecific interactions may be an important contributor to ranavirus transmission. These results suggest that behavioural phenotypes provide a means to identify individuals more likely to spread disease and thus give insights into disease outbreaks that threaten wildlife and humans.
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL, USA.
authors.forename: Alessandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Araujo
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL, USA.
authors.forename: Lucas
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Kirschman
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL, USA rwarne@siu.edu.
authors.forename: Robin W
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-7568-074X
authors.initials: RW
authors.lastname: Warne
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004266:DNA Virus Infections; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D004198:Disease Susceptibility; D010641:Phenotype; D017995:Ranavirus
keywords: amphibian; emerging disease; epidemiology; ranavirus; super-spreader