Data from: Towards the description of livestock mobility in Sahelian Africa: some results from a survey in Mauritania

Understanding spatio-temporal patterns of host mobility is a key factor to prevent and control animal and human diseases. This is utterly important in low-income countries, where animal disease epidemics have strong socio-economic impacts. In this article we analyzed a livestock mobility database, whose data have been collected by the Centre National d’Elevage et de Recherches Vétérinaires (CNERV) Mauritania, to describe its patterns and temporal evolution. Data were collected through phone and face-to-face interviews in almost all the regions in Mauritania over a period of roughly two weeks during June 2015. The analysis has shown the existence of two mobility patterns throughout the year: the first related to routine movements from January to August; the second strictly connected to the religious festivity of Tabaski that in 2014 occurred at the beginning of October. These mobility patterns are different in terms of animals involved (fewer cattle and dromedaries are traded around Tabaski), the means of transportation (the volume of animals moved by truck raises around Tabaski) and destinations (most of the animals are traded nationally around Tabaski). Due to the differences between these two periods, public health officers, researchers and other stakeholders should take account of the time of the year when implementing vaccination campaigns or creating surveillance networks.解析宿主移动的时空模式，是防控人畜共患病的核心环节。这一点在低收入国家尤为关键，因为动物疫病流行会对社会经济造成极强的冲击。本文针对一套家畜移动数据库展开分析，该数据库的数据由毛里塔尼亚国家畜牧与兽医研究中心（Centre National d’Elevage et de Recherches Vétérinaires, CNERV）采集，旨在刻画其移动模式与时序演化特征。2015年6月，研究团队通过电话与面对面访谈的方式，在毛里塔尼亚几乎所有地区开展了为期约两周的数据采集工作。分析结果显示，全年存在两类移动模式：第一类为1月至8月的常规移动；第二类则与2014年10月初举办的宗教节庆塔巴斯基（Tabaski）紧密相关。两类移动模式在涉及畜种、运输方式与交易目的地三方面均存在显著差异：塔巴斯基节庆期间交易的牛只与单峰驼数量更少；采用卡车运输的家畜运输量在该时段显著提升；且多数家畜的交易范围集中于国内。鉴于这两个时段的差异，公共卫生人员、研究人员及其他利益相关方在开展疫苗接种行动或构建监测网络时，应充分考量年度时段因素。