Projects per year
Abstract
Transmission is a fundamental step in the life cycle of every parasite but it is also one of the most challenging processes to model and quantify. In most host–parasite models, the transmission process is encapsulated by a single parameter β. Many different biological processes and interactions, acting on both hosts and infectious organisms, are subsumed in this single term. There are, however, at least two undesirable consequences of this high level of abstraction. First, nonlinearities and heterogeneities that can be critical to the dynamic behaviour of infections are poorly represented; second, estimating the transmission coefficient β from field data is often very difficult. In this paper, we present a conceptual model, which breaks the transmission process into its component parts. This deconstruction enables us to identify circumstances that generate nonlinearities in transmission, with potential implications for emergent transmission behaviour at individual and population scales. Such behaviour cannot be explained by the traditional linear transmission frameworks. The deconstruction also provides a clearer link to the empirical estimation of key components of transmission and enables the construction of flexible models that produce a unified understanding of the spread of both micro- and macro-parasite infectious disease agents.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 20160084 |
Number of pages | 11 |
Journal | Philosophical Transactions B: Biological Sciences |
Volume | 372 |
Issue number | 1719 |
Early online date | 13 Mar 2017 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 5 May 2017 |
Bibliographical note
Special issue: Opening the black box: re-examining the ecology and evolution of parasite transmissionKeywords
- infection
- infectious disease
- modelling
- nonlinearities
- heterogeneity
- transmission function
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Dive into the research topics of 'Breaking beta: deconstructing the parasite transmission function'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.Projects
- 1 Finished
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NE/I022892/1: The determinants of immune function in a wild mammal.
Viney, M. (Principal Investigator)
1/02/12 → 1/09/16
Project: Research