Blood thicker than water: kinship, disease prevalence and group size drive divergent patterns of infection risk in a social mammal

The importance of social- and kin-structuring of populations for the transmission of wildlife disease is widely assumed but poorly described. Social structure can help dilute risks of transmission for group members, and is relatively easy to measure, but kin-association represents a further level of...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inProceedings of the Royal Society. B, Biological sciences Vol. 283; no. 1835; pp. 1 - 8
Main Authors Benton, Clare H., Delahay, Richard J., Robertson, Andrew, McDonald, Robbie A., Wilson, Alastair J., Burke, Terry A., Hodgson, Dave
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published THE ROYAL SOCIETY 27.07.2016
Subjects
Badgers
Disease risk
Disease transmission
Epidemiology
Fungal infections
Infections
Social groups
Social structures
Tuberculosis
Ungulates
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Summary:The importance of social- and kin-structuring of populations for the transmission of wildlife disease is widely assumed but poorly described. Social structure can help dilute risks of transmission for group members, and is relatively easy to measure, but kin-association represents a further level of population sub-structure that is harder to measure, particularly when association behaviours happen underground. Here, using epidemiological and molecular genetic data from a wild, high-density population of the European badger (Meles meles), we quantify the risks of infection with Mycobacterium bovis (the causative agent of tuberculosis) in cubs. The risk declines with increasing size of its social group, but this net dilution effect conceals divergent patterns of infection risk. Cubs only enjoy reduced risk when social groups have a higher proportion of test-negative individuals. Cubs suffer higher infection risk in social groups containing resident infectious adults, and these risks are exaggerated when cubs and infectious adults are closely related. We further identify key differences in infection risk associated with resident infectious males and females. We link our results to parent–offspring interactions and other kin-biased association, but also consider the possibility that susceptibility to infection is heritable. These patterns of infection risk help to explain the observation of a herd immunity effect in badgers following low-intensity vaccination campaigns. They also reveal kinship and kin-association to be important, and often hidden, drivers of disease transmission in social mammals.
ISSN:0962-8452
1471-2954