Abstract
Animal movement impacts the spread of human and wildlife diseases, and there is significant interest in understanding the role of migrations, biological invasions and other wildlife movements in spatial infection dynamics. However, the influence of processes acting on infections during transient phases of host movement is poorly understood. We propose a conceptual framework that explicitly considers infection dynamics during transient phases of host movement to better predict infection spread through spatial host networks. Accounting for host transient movement captures key processes that occur while hosts move between locations, which together determine the rate at which hosts spread infections through networks. We review theoretical and empirical studies of host movement and infection spread, highlighting the multiple factors that impact the infection status of hosts. We then outline characteristics of hosts, parasites and the environment that influence these dynamics. Recent technological advances provide disease ecologists unprecedented ability to track the fine-scale movement of organisms. These, in conjunction with experimental testing of the factors driving infection dynamics during host movement, can inform models of infection spread based on constituent biological processes.
Highlights
Understanding how infectious diseases spread through spatial networks of hosts has been called a ‘holy grail’ of epidemiology [1]
To better understand how transient phases of host movement factor into spatial infection dynamics, we propose a framework that integrates concepts from dispersal ecology and spatial disease modelling
This review highlights that obtaining field data on infection dynamics during the transient phase of movement present a key challenge to understanding the mechanistic links of host movement and infection spread
Summary
Understanding how infectious diseases spread through spatial networks of hosts has been called a ‘holy grail’ of epidemiology [1]. In contrast with recovery and mortality, transmission during host transience (either among moving hosts, at per capita rate b, or from the environment, at rate L) generally facilitates infection spread among host networks This process strengthens the link between infection spread and host movement, but weakens the link between spread and prevalence in source resident locations. Movements of humans can increase time in habitats harbouring mosquito-borne dengue virus [58] and result in spatial patterns of infection risk that diverge from those predicted by abundance of mosquitoes in households [58] These findings support the hypothesis that exposure during host transience (captured by the force of infection parameter, L, in our framework) may decrease the influence of resident locations on patterns of infection spread. This case is represented in our framework through a b parameter equal to zero and would result in structural trapping of infection to locations occupied by adult hosts
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