Rate of intersexual interactions affects injury likelihood in Tasmanian devil contact networks

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
File version

Accepted Manuscript (AM)

Author(s)
Hamilton, David G
Jones, Menna E
Cameron, Elissa Z
McCallum, Hamish
Storfer, Andrew
Hohenlohe, Paul A
Hamede, Rodrigo K
Griffith University Author(s)
Primary Supervisor
Other Supervisors
Editor(s)
Date
2019
Size
File type(s)
Location
License
Abstract

Identifying the types of contacts that result in disease transmission is important for accurately modeling and predicting transmission dynamics and disease spread in wild populations. We investigated contacts within a population of adult Tasmanian devils (Sarcophilus harrisii) over a 6-month period and tested whether individual-level contact patterns were correlated with accumulation of bite wounds. Bite wounds are important in the spread of devil facial tumor disease, a clonal cancer cell line transmitted through direct inoculation of tumor cells when susceptible and infected individuals bite each other. We used multimodel inference and network autocorrelation models to investigate the effects of individual-level contact patterns, identities of interacting partners, and position within the social network on the propensity to be involved in bite-inducing contacts. We found that males were more likely to receive potentially disease-transmitting bite wounds than females, particularly during the mating season when males spend extended periods mate-guarding females. The number of bite wounds individuals received during the mating season was unrelated to any of the network metrics examined. Our approach illustrates the necessity for understanding which contact types spread disease in different systems to assist the management of this and other infectious wildlife diseases.

Journal Title

Behavioral Ecology

Conference Title
Book Title
Edition
Volume

30

Issue

4

Thesis Type
Degree Program
School
Publisher link
Patent number
Funder(s)
Grant identifier(s)
Rights Statement
Rights Statement

© 2019 The Author(s) 2019. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Society for Behavioral Ecology. This is a pre-copy-editing, author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication in Behavioral Ecology following peer review. The definitive publisher-authenticated version Rate of intersexual interactions affects injury likelihood in Tasmanian devil contact networks, Behavioral Ecology, Volume 30, Issue 4, July/August 2019, Pages 1087–1095 is available online at: 10.1093/beheco/arz054

Item Access Status
Note
Access the data
Related item(s)
Subject

Ecology

Evolutionary biology

Zoology

Science & Technology

Life Sciences & Biomedicine

Behavioral Sciences

Biology

Persistent link to this record
Citation

Hamilton, DG; Jones, ME; Cameron, EZ; McCallum, H; Storfer, A; Hohenlohe, PA; Hamede, RK, Rate of intersexual interactions affects injury likelihood in Tasmanian devil contact networks, Behavioral Ecology, 2019, 30 (4), pp. 1087-1095

Collections