High-resolution contact networks of free-ranging domestic dogs Canis familiaris and implications for transmission of infection

J.K. Wilson-Aggarwal, L. Ozella, M. Tizzoni, C. Cattuto, G.J F. Swan, T. Moundai, M.J. Silk, J.A. Zingeser, R.A. McDonald, PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases 13(7), e0007565 (2019)

Contact patterns strongly influence the dynamics of disease transmission in both human and non-human animal populations. Domestic dogs Canis familiaris are a social species and are a reservoir for several zoonotic infections, yet few studies have empirically determined contact patterns within dog populations. Using high-resolution proximity logging technology, we characterised the contact networks of free-ranging domestic dogs from two settlements (n = 108 dogs, covering >80% of the population in each settlement) in rural Chad. We used these data to simulate the transmission of an infection comparable to rabies and investigated the effects of including observed contact heterogeneities on epidemic outcomes. We found that dog contact networks displayed considerable heterogeneity, particularly in the duration of contacts and that the network had communities that were highly correlated with household membership. Simulations using observed contact networks had smaller epidemic sizes than those that assumed random mixing, demonstrating the unsuitability of homogenous mixing models in predicting epidemic outcomes. When contact heterogeneities were included in simulations, the network position of the individual initially infected had an important effect on epidemic outcomes. The risk of an epidemic occurring was best predicted by the initially infected individual’s ranked degree, while epidemic size was best predicted by the individual’s ranked eigenvector centrality. For dogs in one settlement, we found that ranked eigenvector centrality was correlated with range size. Our results demonstrate that observed heterogeneities in contacts are important for the prediction of epidemiological outcomes in free-ranging domestic dogs. We show that individuals presenting a higher risk for disease transmission can be identified by their network position and provide evidence that observable traits hold potential for informing targeted disease management strategies.


URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosntds/article?id=10.1371/journal.pntd.0007565

PDF: https://journals.plos.org/plosntds/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pntd.0007565&type=printable

BIBTEX:

@article{10.1371/journal.pntd.0007565,
    author = {Wilson-Aggarwal, Jared K. AND Ozella, Laura AND Tizzoni, Michele AND Cattuto, Ciro AND Swan, George J. F. AND Moundai, Tchonfienet AND Silk, Matthew J. AND Zingeser, James A. AND McDonald, Robbie A.},
    journal = {PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases},
    publisher = {Public Library of Science},
    title = {High-resolution contact networks of free-ranging domestic dogs Canis familiaris and implications for transmission of infection},
    year = {2019},
    month = {07},
    volume = {13},
    url = {https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0007565},
    pages = {1-19},
    number = {7},
    doi = {10.1371/journal.pntd.0007565}
}

PUBLICATIONS

Impact of contact data resolution on the evaluation of interventions in mathematical models of infectious diseases
Screening and vaccination against COVID-19 to minimise school closure: a modelling study
Group interactions modulate critical mass dynamics in social convention
Association networks and social temporal dynamics in ewes and lambs
From temporal network data to the dynamics of social relationships
Using wearable proximity sensors to characterize social contact patterns in a village of rural Malawi
Building surrogate temporal network data from observed backbones
Effect of manual and digital contact tracing on COVID-19 outbreaks: a study on empirical contact data
Predicting partially observed processes on temporal networks by Dynamics-Aware Node Embeddings (DyANE)
Digital proximity tracing on empirical contact networks for pandemic control
Span-core Decomposition for Temporal Networks: Algorithms and Applications
Relevance of temporal cores for epidemic spread in temporal networks
Measuring social networks in primates: wearable sensors versus direct observations
The effect of age, environment and management on social contact patterns in sheep
High-resolution contact networks of free-ranging domestic dogs Canis familiaris and implications for transmission of infection
Simplicial models of social contagion
Study design and protocol for investigating social network patterns in rural and urban schools and households in a coastal setting in Kenya using wearable proximity sensors
Wearable Proximity Sensors for Monitoring a Mass Casualty Incident Exercise: Feasibility Study
The structured backbone of temporal social ties
Mining (maximal) span-cores from temporal networks
Estimating the outcome of spreading processes on networks with incomplete information: A dimensionality reduction approach
Close encounters between infants and household members measured through wearable proximity sensors
Can co-location be used as a proxy for face-to-face contacts?
Effect of risk perception on epidemic spreading in temporal networks
Estimating the epidemic risk using non-uniformly sampled contact data
Robust modeling of human contact networks across different scales and proximity-sensing techniques
Finding Collaboration Partners in a Scientific Community: The Role of Cognitive Group Awareness, Career Level, and Disciplinary Background
Recalibrating disease parameters for increasing realism in modeling epidemics in closed settings
School closure policies at municipality level for mitigating influenza spread: a model-based evaluation
Contact diaries versus wearable proximity sensors in measuring contact patterns at a conference: method comparison and participants’ attitudes
Impact of spatially constrained sampling of temporal contact networks on the evaluation of the epidemic risk
How to Estimate Epidemic Risk from Incomplete Contact Diaries Data?
Quantifying social contacts in a household setting of rural Kenya using wearable proximity sensors
Epidemic risk from friendship network data: an equivalence with a non-uniform sampling of contact networks
Compensating for population sampling in simulations of epidemic spread on temporal contact networks
Enhancing the evaluation of pathogen transmission risk in a hospital by merging hand-hygiene compliance and contact data: a proof-of-concept study
Contact patterns in a high school: a comparison between data collected using wearable sensors, contact diaries and friendship surveys
Data on face-to-face contacts in an office building suggest a low-cost vaccination strategy based on community linkers
Is Web Content a Good Proxy for Real-Life Interaction? A Case Study Considering Online and Offline Interactions of Computer Scientists
Combining High-Resolution Contact Data with Virological Data to Investigate Influenza Transmission in a Tertiary Care Hospital
Mental health and social networks in early adolescence: A dynamic study of objectively-measured social interaction behaviors
Mitigation of infectious disease at school: targeted class closure vs school closure
How memory generates heterogeneous dynamics in temporal networks
Contact patterns among high school students
Detecting the Community Structure and Activity Patterns of Temporal Networks: A Non-Negative Tensor Factorization Approach
Measuring contact patterns with wearable sensors: methods, data characteristics and applications to data-driven simulations of infectious diseases
Bootstrapping under constraint for the assessment of group behavior in human contact networks
Immunization strategies for epidemic processes in time-varying contact networks
Activity clocks: spreading dynamics on temporal networks of human contact
Gender homophily from spatial behavior in a primary school: a sociometric study
Estimating Potential Infection Transmission Routes in Hospital Wards Using Wearable Proximity Sensors
Empirical temporal networks of face-to-face human interactions
New Insights and Methods for Predicting Face-To-Face Contacts
Time-varying Social Networks in a Graph Database – A Neo4j Use Case
Temporal networks of face-to-face human interactions
An infectious disease model on empirical networks of human contact: bridging the gap between dynamic network data and contact matrices
Fingerprinting temporal networks of close-range human proximity
Digital Epidemiology
Random Walks on Temporal Networks
The making of Sixty-Nine Days Of Close Encounters At The Science Gallery.
High-Resolution Measurements of Face-to-Face Contact Patterns in a Primary School.
Simulation of an SEIR Infectious Disease Model on the Dynamic Contact Network of Conference Attendees.
On the Dynamics of Human Proximity for Data Diffusion in Ad-Hoc Networks.
Close Encounters in a Pediatric Ward: Measuring Face-to-Face Proximity and Mixing Patterns with Wearable Sensors.
What’s in a Crowd? Analysis of Face-to-Face Behavioral Networks.
Wearable Sensor Networks for Measuring Face-to-Face Contact Patterns in Healthcare Settings.
Social Dynamics in Conferences: Analysis of Data from the Live Social Semantics Application.
Providing Enhanced Social Interaction Services for Industry Exhibitors at large Medical Conferences.
Dynamics of Person-to-Person Interactions from Distributed RFID Sensor Networks.
Semantics, Sensors, and the Social Web: The Live Social Semantics Experiments.
The Live Social Semantics Application: a Platform for Integrating Face-to-Face Presence with On-Line Social Networking
Live Social Semantics
High Resolution Dynamical Mapping of Social Interactions With Active RFID.