Biology subjects

Fenton, A.

Publications and source records attributed to Fenton, A..

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Helminth coinfection facilitates gammaherpesvirus infection in the wood mouse Apodemus sylvaticus

Helminths are widespread parasites that can modulate host immunity, potentially increasing susceptibility to viral infections. However, evidence for these effects varies across systems and environments, and links between laboratory and wild populations remain unclear. We developed a tractable system using wood mice, Heligmosomoides spp. nematodes, and wood mouse herpes virus (WMHV) to bridge this gap. Combining laboratory and field experiments with population modelling, we examined how helminth infection, anthelmintic treatment and diet affect viral dynamics. Across lab and field data, helminth infection consistently increased WMHV risk, with stronger effects at higher worm burdens. Field results showed that anthelmintic treatment reduced viral infection, and laboratory experiments showed that improved nutrition mitigates helminth-induced increases in viral susceptibility. Our population-level modelling suggested that helminth burden-dependent facilitation can generate nonlinear effects on viral spread, dependent on helminth virulence. Our findings highlight the potential importance of helminths as facilitators of viral infections, and suggest that anthelmintic treatment may provide indirect benefits for viral control. We also show the value of integrating lab and field approaches on the same (or closely related) species, in particular the potential offered by the wood mouse - Heligmosomoides - WMHV system, to understand the drivers and consequences of host-helminth-viral interactions.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2026

Differing effects of parasite-parasite interaction types on the spatial epidemiology of co-circulating parasites

Interactions among co-circulating parasite species influence infection risk and disease progression. Interactions can occur within hosts, e.g. altering susceptibility, or indirectly through host demography or movement, potentially affecting landscape-scale transmission. Despite their ubiquity, the spatial implications of these interactions have received limited attention. We combine spatially-explicit modelling with laboratory experiments to investigate how parasite-parasite interactions influence disease spread. We model within-host, demographic, and dispersal-related interactions across a linear landscape, showing that within-host interactions modifying host susceptibility have the strongest effects on parasite prevalence, spatial heterogeneity, and rate of spread. These effects are amplified when parasites invade sequentially, generating pronounced patch-level priority effects. We tested these predictions experimentally using a protist host (Paramecium caudatum) and two bacterial parasites (Holospora undulata and H. obtusa). Consistent with model predictions, we found that H. obtusa reduces the overall prevalence and spread of H. undulata across a landscape of interconnected patches, likely through reductions in host susceptibility, and evidence of priority effects, observing reduced H. undulata prevalence when introduced after H. obtusa. Our results highlight that parasite-parasite interactions can have important implications for the landscape-scale epidemiology of co-circulating parasites, but the effect magnitude depends on the interaction type and the timing of invasion.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2026

Active locomotion predictively rescues head direction attractor dynamics in head-fixed mice

Head direction (HD) cells in the anterodorsal thalamic nuclei form the brains internal compass, and are often modeled as a ring attractor maintaining azimuth coding by leveraging continuous visual and inertial sensory input. Here, we test how the common experimental preparation of head-fixed animals alters this code. Complete head-fixation that creates vestibular conflict disrupts both unit and population encoding of head direction, while selectively constraining head-on-body movements either in real or virtual reality uniquely impairs HD population activity. More specifically, attractor dynamics is altered in head-restrained mice during periods of immobility, but remarkably recover several hundred milliseconds prior to locomotion onset. The rescue preceding movement onset suggests that an efference copy or prediction of a re-afferent signal is necessary to maintain HD network activity during head restraint. A computational model recapitulates these effects by perturbing lateral connectivity among HD neurons. More generally, the results indicate that the HD network is a context- and state-dependent predictive estimator, stabilized by forthcoming self-motion signals. The classic ring-attractor models should be revised to integrate context-dependent dynamics with prospective motor signals, offering a more complete account of how the brains compass remains stable across both naturalistic and constrained conditions.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2025

Resource supplementation alters host exposure, susceptibility, and infection dynamics across a diverse parasite community

Resource availability is crucial in shaping exposure and resistance to parasites. Although effects are expected to vary across parasite species, most of our knowledge comes from single-host, single-parasite studies. In a wild wood mouse population (Apodemus sylvaticus), we supplemented dietary resources over 3 years and quantified effects on a diverse parasite community alongside host behaviour and physiology. Resource supplementation had diverse impacts on 12 parasite taxa including positive (3/12), negative (6/12), and null (3/12) results. Supplementation also influenced host biology, with supplemented mice moving less, experiencing higher conspecific densities, improved conditions, and increased reproduction. These findings experimentally demonstrate that resource availability can multifacetedly affect disease dynamics. The complexity likely arises due to combined effects on exposure and susceptibility processes. Our study advances understanding of disease drivers at the human-wild interface and underscores the importance of assessing whole parasite communities to predict responses to changing resource landscapes in the wild.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2025

Contrasting roles of host species in tick-pathogen interactions and their influence on Lyme borreliosis hazard across boreal island communities

Predicting the hazard of Lyme borreliosis (LB) is complex due to host-specific effects on tick and pathogen dynamics. To unpick the contributions of cervids and rodents on ticks and Borrelia burgdorferi infection in ticks in boreal region, we analysed data from 41 islands in Finland (2017-2021) with considerable natural variation in the abundances of cervids and rodents, and densities of nymphs (DON: 0-82.5 nymphs/100 m2), nymph infection prevalences (NIP: 0-60%) and densities of infected nymphs (DIN: 0-16.5/100 m2). Using structural equation modelling (SEM), we disentangled direct and indirect effects of host abundances on LB hazard (i.e., DIN). Rodent abundance was associated with higher DIN through its positive effect on NIP (pathogen amplification), while showing no effect on DON. Cervids increased DON (vector amplification) but decreased NIP (pathogen dilution). Our study suggests that in boreal forests the vectors may be supported by very low cervid densities and, as a virtual absence of rodents did not eliminate the pathogen, the pathogen is likely to persist through very low rodent densities. Our study highlights how islands function as a natural mesocosm for rigorous field studies of complex ecological interactions and SEM can serve as a powerful tool to reveal mechanisms driving LB hazard.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2025

Host species composition, not priority effects, determines infection risk in multihost-multiparasite amphibian communities

Novel parasite emergences are posing uncertain threats to wildlife communities worldwide. Because parasites typically infect multiple host species and interact with other parasites, the degree of threat posed by these emergences is known to depend both on a communitys host species composition and history of exposure to other parasites. What is not known is how these two factors - multi-host effects and multi-parasite effects - interact to shape the outcomes of parasite emergences. We experimentally investigated the outcomes of sequential emergences by two amphibian parasites of major concern to global biodiversity, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) and Ranavirus (Rv). Mimicking sequential Bd and Rv emergence in communities comprising either larval common toads (Bufo bufo), larval common frogs (Rana temporaria), or both host species, showed that host community composition influenced subsequent patterns of Bd and Rv infection much more than the presence of the other parasite. Bd prevalence varied predictably with host community composition; toads exhibited consistently higher Bd infection probabilities than frogs across all scenarios. Variation in community-level prevalence therefore was explained by differences in the relative abundance of toads. In contrast, community-level Rv prevalence was not consistently driven by a single host species. Going from single-host to two-host communities reversed relative Rv infection probabilities in frogs versus toads; when kept separately, frogs had a higher Rv infection probability than toads, but toads had a higher infection probability than frogs when the two species were co-housed. Host species composition can therefore alter multi-parasite infection dynamics not only through changes in the abundance of primary host species, but also through changes in which species appear to act as the primary hosts. These insights suggest that Bd-Rv dynamics in single-host scenarios may not reflect those occurring in natural multihost communities, and the observed context-dependency in the apparent primary host species for Rv highlights an overlooked factor potentially shaping biodiversity-disease relationships.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2024

Lineage-specific trait variation generates widespread, contemporaneous coexistence and competitive exclusion dynamics in an invasive, multihost wildlife parasite

Invasive and highly virulent parasites are emerging worldwide, transported to new locations and into novel hosts by anthropogenic activities. Multiple introduction events lead to interactions amongst genetically dissimilar genotypes that can result in either competitive exclusion, coexistence, or cycling through a combination of the two. Here, we report how intra-lineage trait variation of the multihost amphibian parasite Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis drives contrasting outcomes of inter-lineage interactions on two continents, Europe and Africa. Through field surveys, competition experiments and mathematical modelling we show that interactions between the same two lineages in the two continents and in different hosts demonstrate both ends of the exclusion/coexistence continuum. Trait variation in one of the two predominating lineages, BdGPL, is responsible for these contrasting outcomes: In Europe, BdGPL is highly competitive and has constrained the distribution of the other, BdCAPE, to two locations. In Africa, BdGPL and BdCAPE can mutually invade host populations when the other lineage is already resident, potentially leading to coinfections and recombination. That these contrasting outcomes are prolonged and contemporaneous for the same two lineages shows that epidemiological models of invasive parasites need to account for trait variation both within and across lineages.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2024

Effects of host heterogeneity on epidemiological dynamics are mediated by how host infectiousness is determined

Host heterogeneities in susceptibility and infectiousness can affect parasite transmission, but standard analyses typically consider a limited range of epidemiological scenarios. We propose two contrasting phenomenological scenarios that capture a wide range of processes by which host infectiousness is determined, and explore how these scenarios affect the impact of host heterogeneities on parasite transmission. Specifically, we contrast Recipient dependence (RD), where a hosts infectiousness is a fixed characteristic of the recipient host being infected, with Donor dependence (DD), where a hosts infectiousness is determined by the donor host that infected them. Contrasting Susceptible-Infected models of these two phenomenological scenarios show that under RD, R0 is driven by population-level covariance between susceptibility and infectiousness, but for DD scenarios it is driven by the maximum infectiousness present in the population. Our results show that these different scenarios, which capture different ways by which host infectiousness is determined, should be considered explicitly when exploring the consequences of host heterogeneity on transmission.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2024

Density-dependent network structuring within and across wild animal systems

High population density should drive individuals to more frequently share space and interact, producing better-connected spatial and social networks [1-4]. Although this theory is fundamental to our understanding of disease dynamics [2,5-8], it remains unconfirmed how local density generally drives individuals positions within their networks, which reduces our ability to understand and predict density-dependent processes [4,9,10]. Here we provide the first general evidence that density drives greater network connectedness at fine spatiotemporal scales, at the scale of individuals within wild animal populations. We analysed 36 datasets of simultaneous spatial and social behaviour in >58,000 individual animals, spanning 30 species of fish, reptiles, birds, mammals, and insects. 80% of systems exhibited strong positive relationships between local density and network centrality. However, >80% of relationships were nonlinear and 75% became shallower at higher values, signifying that demographic and behavioural processes counteract densitys effects, thereby producing saturating trends [11-15]. Densitys effect was much stronger and less saturating for spatial than social networks, such that individuals become disproportionately spatially connected rather than socially at higher densities. Consequently, ecological processes that depend on spatial connections (e.g. indirect pathogen transmission, resource competition, and territory formation) are likely more density-dependent than those involving social interactions (e.g. direct pathogen transmission, aggression, and social learning). These findings reveal fundamental ecological rules governing societal structuring, with widespread implications. Identifying scaling rules based on processes that generalise across systems, such as these patterns of density dependence, might provide the ability to predict network structures in novel systems.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2023

Spatial refuges and nutrient acquisition predict the outcome of evolutionary rescue in evolving microbial populations

Microbial populations are often exposed to environmental stressors that impact their survival and evolution. Eco-evolutionary theory suggests microbial populations may be able to survive a stressor through "spatial refuges" - i.e., areas of low or reduced stress such as within biofilms. However, spatial refuges reduce a populations access to nutrients, so may be detrimental depending on the severity of the stressor they are sheltering from. Using predictions from a general mathematical model, and the experimental evolution of the bacterium Pseudomonas fluorescens SBW25 under salinity stress and varying opportunities to form spatial refuges (i.e., agitated or non-agitated culture conditions), we show that spatial refuges can rescue a population from stressors only when nutrient levels are high. In the surviving high-salinity evolved populations (i.e., non-agitated culture conditions and high-nutrients), clones had an increased salinity resistance, indicating that spatial refuges can facilitate evolutionary rescue. Though whole genome resequencing did not reveal a single specific mutation associated with salt resistance, we found that clones evolved under control conditions (lower salt, high-nutrients, and no agitation) acquired mutations in a putative chemotaxis gene and showed increased motility. This indicates that spatial refuges under high salinity may also constrain adaptations to other environmental factors. Together, our combination of theory, laboratory experiment, and genome re-sequencing demonstrate the value and limits of spatial refuges in alleviating environmental stress within microbial populations.

microbiology↗

bioRxiv2023

A novel high throughput microwell outgrowth assay for HIV infected cells

Although antiretroviral therapy (ART) is highly effective at suppressing HIV replication, a viral reservoir persists that can reseed infection if ART is interrupted. Curing HIV will require elimination or functional containment of this reservoir, but the size of the HIV reservoir is highly variable between individuals. To evaluate the overall size of the HIV reservoir, several assays have been developed, including PCR based assays for viral DNA, the Intact Proviral DNA Assay (IPDA), and the Quantitative Viral Outgrowth Assay (QVOA). QVOA is the gold standard assay for measuring inducible replication competent proviruses, but this assay is technically challenging and time consuming. To provide a more rapid and less laborious tool for quantifying cells infected with replication competent HIV, we developed the Microwell Outgrowth Assay (MOA), in which HIV infected CD4 T cells are cocultured with an HIV-detecting reporter cell line in a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)/polystyrene array of nanoliter sized wells (rafts). Transmission of HIV from infected cells to the reporter cell line induces fluorescent reporter protein expression that is detected by automated scanning across the array. We show that this assay can detect HIV infected cells with a high degree of sensitivity and precision. Using this approach, we were able to detect HIV infected cells from ART-naive people with HIV (PWH) and from PWH on ART. Furthermore, we demonstrate that infected cells can be recovered from individual rafts and used to analyze the diversity of viral sequences. This assay may be a useful tool for quantifying and characterizing infected cells from PWH. Author summaryMeasuring the size of the HIV reservoir in people with HIV (PWH) will be important for determining the impact of HIV cure strategies. However, measuring this reservoir is challenging. We report a new method for quantifying HIV infected cells that involves culturing cells from PWH in an array of microwells with a cell line that detects HIV infection. We show that this approach can detect rare HIV infected cells and derive detailed virus sequence information for each infected cell.

microbiology↗

bioRxiv2023

The impact of within-host coinfection interactions on between-host parasite transmission dynamics varies with spatial scale

Within-host interactions among coinfecting parasites can have major consequences for individual infection risk and disease severity. However, the impact of these within-host interactions on between-host parasite transmission, and the spatial scales over which they occur, remain unknown. We developed and apply a novel spatially-explicit analysis to parasite infection data from a wild wood mouse (Apodemus sylvaticus) population. We previously demonstrated a strong negative interaction within individual hosts gastrointestinal parasites, the nematode Heligmosomoides polygyrus and the coccidia Eimeria hungaryensis, using drug-treatment experiments. Here, we find that this negative within-host interaction can significantly alter the between-host transmission dynamics of E. hungaryensis, but only within spatially-restricted neighbourhoods around each host. However, for the closely-related species E. apionodes, which experiments show does not interact strongly with H. polygyrus, we did not find any effect on transmission over any spatial scale. Our results demonstrate that the effects of within-host coinfection interactions can ripple out beyond each host to alter the transmission dynamics of the parasites, but only over local scales that likely reflect the spatial dimension of transmission. Hence there may be knock-on consequences of drug treatments impacting the transmission of non-target parasites, altering infection risks even for non-treated individuals in the wider neighbourhood.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2023

Aversive experience drives offline ensemble reactivation to link memories across days

Memories are encoded in neural ensembles during learning and stabilized by post-learning reactivation. Integrating recent experiences into existing memories ensures that memories contain the most recently available information, but how the brain accomplishes this critical process remains unknown. Here we show that in mice, a strong aversive experience drives the offline ensemble reactivation of not only the recent aversive memory but also a neutral memory formed two days prior, linking the fear from the recent aversive memory to the previous neutral memory. We find that fear specifically links retrospectively, but not prospectively, to neutral memories across days. Consistent with prior studies, we find reactivation of the recent aversive memory ensemble during the offline period following learning. However, a strong aversive experience also increases co-reactivation of the aversive and neutral memory ensembles during the offline period. Finally, the expression of fear in the neutral context is associated with reactivation of the shared ensemble between the aversive and neutral memories. Taken together, these results demonstrate that strong aversive experience can drive retrospective memory-linking through the offline co-reactivation of recent memory ensembles with memory ensembles formed days prior, providing a neural mechanism by which memories can be integrated across days.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2023

A Photoactivated Protein Degrader for Optical Control of Synaptic Function

Hundreds of proteins determine the function of synapses, and synapses define the neuronal circuits that subserve myriad brain, cognitive, and behavioral functions. It is thus necessary to precisely manipulate specific proteins at specific sub-cellular locations and times to elucidate the roles of particular proteins and synapses in brain function. We developed PHOtochemically TArgeting Chimeras (PHOTACs) as a strategy to optically degrade specific proteins with high spatial and temporal precision. PHOTACs are small molecules that, upon wavelength-selective illumination, catalyze ubiquitylation and degradation of target proteins through endogenous proteasomes. Here we describe the design and chemical properties of a PHOTAC that targets Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II alpha (CaMKII), which is abundant and crucial for baseline synaptic function of excitatory neurons. We validate the PHOTAC strategy, showing that the CaMKII-PHOTAC is effective in mouse brain tissue. Light activation of CaMKII-PHOTAC removed CaMKII from regions of the mouse hippocampus only within 25 m of the illuminated brain surface. The optically-controlled degradation decreases synaptic function within minutes of light activation, measured by the light-initiated attenuation of evoked field excitatory postsynaptic potential (fEPSP) responses to physiological stimulation. The PHOTACs methodology should be broadly applicable to other key proteins implicated in synaptic function, especially for evaluating their precise roles in the maintenance of long-term potentiation and memory within subcellular dendritic domains.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2022

Long-term temporal trends in gastrointestinal parasite infection in wild Soay sheep

Monitoring the prevalence and abundance of parasites over time is important for addressing their potential impact on host life-histories, immunological profiles, and their influence as a selective force. Only long-term ecological studies have the potential to shed light on both the temporal trends in infection prevalence and abundance and the drivers of such trends, because of their ability to dissect drivers that may be confounded over shorter time scales. Despite this, only a relatively small number of such studies exist. Here, we analysed changes in the prevalence and abundance of gastrointestinal parasites in the wild Soay sheep population of St Kilda across 31 years. The host population density has increased across the study, and population density is known to increase parasite transmission, but we found that density and year explained temporal variation in parasite prevalence and abundance independently. Prevalence of both strongyle nematodes and coccidian microparasites increased during the study, and this effect varied between lambs, yearlings and adults. Meanwhile, abundance of strongyles was more strongly linked to host density than to temporal (yearly) dynamics, while abundance of coccidia showed a strong temporal trend without any influence of density. Strikingly, coccidian abundance increased threefold across the course of the study in lambs, while increases in yearlings and adults were negligible. Our decades-long, intensive, individual-based study will enable the role of environmental change and selection pressures in driving these dynamics to be determined, potentially providing unparalleled insight into the drivers of temporal variation in parasite dynamics in the wild. Key findingsO_LIWe studied temporal trends in gastrointestinal parasites of wild sheep over 31 years C_LIO_LIYear and host population density explained temporal variation in parasites independently C_LIO_LIPrevalence of both strongyle nematodes and coccidia varied across the study period C_LIO_LIAbundance of strongyles was more closely linked to host density than year C_LIO_LIAbundance of coccidia increased threefold over time in lambs, but did not vary in adults C_LI

ecology↗

bioRxiv2021

The impact of resource provisioning on the epidemiological responses of different parasites

O_LIEvents such as anthropogenic activities and periodic tree masting can alter resource provisioning in the environment, directly affecting animals, and potentially impacting the spread of infectious diseases in wildlife. The effect of these supplemental resources on infectious diseases can manifest through different pathways, affecting host susceptibility, transmission and host demography. C_LIO_LITo date however, empirical research has tended to examine these different pathways in isolation, for example by quantifying the effects of provisioning on host behaviour in the wild or changes in immune responses in controlled laboratory studies. Further, while theory has investigated the interactions between these pathways, thus far this work has focussed on a narrow subset of pathogen types, typically directly-transmitted microparasites. Given the diverse ways that provisioning can affect host susceptibility, contact patterns or host demography, we may expect the epidemiological consequences of provisioning to depend on key aspects of parasite life-history, such as the duration of infection and transmission mode. C_LIO_LIWe developed a suite of generic epidemiological models to compare how resource provisioning alters responses for different parasites that vary in their biology (micro- and macro-parasite), transmission mode (direct, environmental, and vector transmitted) and duration of infection (acute, latent, and chronic). Next, we parameterised these different parasite types using data from the diverse parasite community of wild wood mice as a case study. C_LIO_LIWe show there are common epidemiological responses to host resource provisioning across all parasite types examined. In particular, the response to provisioning could be driven in opposite directions, depending on which host pathways (contact rate, susceptibility or host demography) are most altered by the addition of resources to the environment. Broadly, these responses were qualitatively consistent across all parasite types, emphasising the importance of identifying general trade-offs between provisioning-altered parameters. C_LIO_LIDespite the qualitative consistency in responses to provisioning across parasite types, we found notable quantitative differences between parasites, suggesting specific epidemiological outcomes could strongly depend on parasite type, infection duration and permanency of recovery, and whether the parasite is directly, environmentally, or vector transmitted. These analyses therefore highlight the importance of knowing key specific aspects of host-parasite biology, such as host contact behaviours, parasite interactions with the host immune system, and how resource availability shapes host demographics, in order to understand and predict epidemiological responses to provisioning for any specific host-parasite system. C_LI

ecology↗

bioRxiv2021

Positive selection on mitochondria may eliminate heritable microbes from arthropod populations.

The majority of arthropod species carry facultative heritable microbes, bacteria that are passed from mother to offspring, and which may contribute to host function. These symbionts are coinherited down the maternal line with mitochondria, and selection favouring either new symbionts, or new symbiont variants, is known to drive loss of mitochondrial diversity as a correlated response. More recently, evidence has accumulated of episodic directional selection on mitochondria. We therefore examined the reciprocal interaction and model the impact of selection on mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) on symbiont frequency. We performed this for three generic scenarios: a fixed benefit to the host carrying the symbiont, a benefit that decreased with symbiont frequency, and a benefit that increased with symbiont frequency. We find that direct selection on mtDNA can drive symbionts out of the population under some circumstances. Symbiont extinction occurs where the positively selected mtDNA mutation occurs initially in an individual that is uninfected with the symbiont, and the symbiont is initially at low frequency. When, in contrast, the positively selected mtDNA mutation occurs in a symbiont infected individual, the mutation becomes fixed and in doing so removes symbiont variation from the population. Given low frequency symbiont infections are common in natural populations, and selection on mtDNA is also considered to occur frequently, we conclude that mtDNA driven loss of symbionts represents a novel mechanism driving loss of facultative heritable microbes. We conclude further that the molecular evolution of symbionts and mitochondria, which has previously been viewed from a perspective of selection on symbionts driving the evolution of a neutral mtDNA marker, should be reappraised in the light of positive selection on mtDNA. Where low mtDNA and symbiont genetic diversity are observed, it should not be assumed to be a consequences of selection acting on the symbiont.

evolutionary biology↗

bioRxiv2020

Who acquires infection from whom? Estimating herpesvirus transmission rates between wild rodent host groups

To date, few studies of parasite epidemiology have investigated who acquires infection from whom in wildlife populations. Nonetheless, identifying routes of disease transmission within a population, and determining the key groups of individuals that drive parasite transmission and maintenance, are fundamental to understanding disease dynamics. Gammaherpesviruses are a widespread group of DNA viruses that infect many vertebrate species, and murine gammaherpesviruses (i.e. MuHV-4) are a standard lab model for studying human herpesviruses, for which much about the pathology and immune response elicited to infection is well understood. However, despite this extensive research effort, primarily in the lab, the transmission route of murine gammaherpesviruses within their natural host populations is not well understood. Here, we aimed to understand wood mouse herpesvirus (WMHV) transmission, by fitting a series of population dynamic models to field data on wood mice naturally infected with WMHV and then estimating transmission parameters within and between demographic groups of the host population. Different models accounted for different combinations of host sex (male/female), age (subadult/adult) and transmission functions (density/frequency-dependent). We found that a density-dependent transmission model incorporating explicit sex groups fitted the data better than all other proposed models. Male-to-male transmission was the highest among all demographic groups, suggesting that male behaviour is a key factor driving WMHV transmission. Our models also suggest that transmission between sexes, although important, wasnt symmetrical, with infected males playing a significant role in infecting naive females but not vice versa. Overall this work shows the power of coupling population dynamic models with long-term field data to elucidate otherwise unobservable transmission processes in wild disease systems.

ecology↗