Infectious disease transmission and behavioral allometry in wild mammals

1. Animal social and movement behaviors can impact the transmission dynamics of infectious diseases, especially for pathogens transmitted through close contact between hosts or through contact with infectious stages in the environment. 2. Estimating pathogen transmission rates and R0 from natural systems can be challenging. Because host behavioral traits that underlie the transmission process vary predictably with body size, one of the best-studied traits among animals, body size might therefore also predict variation in parasite transmission dynamics. 3. Here, we examine how two host behaviors, social group living and the intensity of habitat use, scale allometrically using comparative data from wild primate, carnivore and ungulate species. We use these empirical relationships to parameterize classical compartment models for infectious micro- and macroparasitic diseases, and examine how the risk of pathogen invasion changes as a function of host behavior and body size. We then test mod...1. 动物的社会行为与移动行为可显著影响传染病的传播动力学，尤其针对经由宿主间密切接触，或接触环境中感染性病原体阶段的传播病原体。2. 从自然生态系统中估算病原体传播速率与基本再生数(R0)往往颇具挑战。由于驱动传播过程的宿主行为性状会随体型呈现可预测的变化，而体型是动物类群中研究最为充分的性状之一，因此体型或许也能预测寄生虫传播动力学的差异。3. 本研究基于野生灵长类、食肉目及有蹄类动物的跨物种比较数据，探究两种宿主行为——群居生活与生境利用强度的异速缩放规律。我们利用这些经验关系，为传染性微寄生虫与宏寄生虫疾病构建经典区室模型的参数化方案，并分析病原体入侵风险如何随宿主行为与体型变化。随后我们将测试……