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  • Infection of the fittest: devil facial tumour disease has greatest effect on individuals with highest reproductive output

    Author(s)
    Wells, Konstans
    Hamede, Rodrigo K
    Kerlin, Douglas H
    Storfer, Andrew
    Hohenlohe, Paul A
    Jones, Menna E
    McCallum, Hamish I
    Griffith University Author(s)
    McCallum, Hamish
    Kerlin, Douglas H.
    Wells, Konstans
    Year published
    2017
    Metadata
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    Abstract
    Emerging infectious diseases rarely affect all members of a population equally and determining how individuals’ susceptibility to infection is related to other components of their fitness is critical to understanding disease impacts at a population level and for predicting evolutionary trajectories. We introduce a novel state-space model framework to investigate survival and fecundity of Tasmanian devils (Sarcophilus harrisii) affected by a transmissible cancer, devil facial tumour disease. We show that those devils that become host to tumours have otherwise greater fitness, with higher survival and fecundity rates prior to ...
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    Emerging infectious diseases rarely affect all members of a population equally and determining how individuals’ susceptibility to infection is related to other components of their fitness is critical to understanding disease impacts at a population level and for predicting evolutionary trajectories. We introduce a novel state-space model framework to investigate survival and fecundity of Tasmanian devils (Sarcophilus harrisii) affected by a transmissible cancer, devil facial tumour disease. We show that those devils that become host to tumours have otherwise greater fitness, with higher survival and fecundity rates prior to disease-induced death than non-host individuals that do not become infected, although high tumour loads lead to high mortality. Our finding that individuals with the greatest reproductive value are those most affected by the cancer demonstrates the need to quantify both survival and fecundity in context of disease progression for understanding the impact of disease on wildlife populations.
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    Journal Title
    Ecology Letters
    Volume
    20
    Issue
    6
    DOI
    https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.12776
    Subject
    Population Ecology
    Host-Parasite Interactions
    Ecological Applications
    Ecology
    Evolutionary Biology
    Publication URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/10072/340420
    Collection
    • Journal articles

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