Data from: Comparing the efficacy of control strategies for infectious disease outbreaks using field and simulation studies

Diseases characterized by long distance inoculum dispersal (LDD) are among
the fastest spreading epidemics in both natural and managed landscapes.
Management of such epidemics is extremely challenging because of
asymptomatic infection extending at large spatial scales and frequent
escape from the newly established disease sources. We compared the
efficacy of area- and timing-based disease management strategies in
artificially initiated field epidemics of wheat stripe rust and
complemented with simulations from an updated version of the spatially
explicit model EPIMUL, using model parameters relevant to field epidemics.
The model was further used to expand the number of epidemic mitigations
beyond that feasible to incorporate in the field. The field experiment was
conducted for two years in two locations having different climatic
conditions. Culling and protection treatments were applied at different
times after epidemic initiation and to different spatial extents
surrounding the outbreaks. In each experiment, treatments were replicated
four times in plots 33.5 m long and 1.52 m wide with a 0.76 x 0.76 m
inoculated focus centered within each plot. Disease gradients were
assessed along the center lines of the plots at 1.52 m intervals both
upwind and downwind from the focus. Both field and simulation results
indicated that control measures applied over the entire population were
highly effective in suppressing the epidemics by more than 99% but may not
always be logistically and economically feasible at large spatial scales.
Comparison between the variable sized treatment areas and application
timings suggested that implementing contiguous premises (CP) cull at 1 day
after first sporulation in the outbreak focus reduced rust by 52 and 60%
in Corvallis and Madras, respectively. However, altering the cull size did
not significantly affect the disease epidemic development, which suggested
that early timing had a greater influence in suppressing the epidemics
than did increased area of application. However, sufficiently large,
treated areas may compensate for a delay in application timing to some
extent. Results from these replicated treatments may help to devise
appropriate management strategies for other LDD pathogens.