Infectious disease and sickness behaviour: tumour progression affects interaction patterns and social network structure in wild Tasmanian devils |
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Authors: | David G Hamilton Menna E Jones Elissa Z Cameron Douglas H Kerlin Hamish McCallum Andrew Storfer Paul A Hohenlohe Rodrigo K Hamede |
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Institution: | 1.School of Natural Sciences, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Australia;2.School of Biological Sciences, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand;3.Environmental Futures Research Institute, Griffith University, Nathan, Australia;4.School of Biological Sciences, Washington State University, Pullman, USA;5.Department of Biological Sciences, University of Idaho, Moscow, USA;6.CANECEV, Centre de Recherches Ecologiques et Evolutives sur le Cancer (CREEC), Montpellier 34090, France |
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Abstract: | Infectious diseases, including transmissible cancers, can have a broad range of impacts on host behaviour, particularly in the latter stages of disease progression. However, the difficulty of early diagnoses makes the study of behavioural influences of disease in wild animals a challenging task. Tasmanian devils (Sarcophilus harrisii) are affected by a transmissible cancer, devil facial tumour disease (DFTD), in which tumours are externally visible as they progress. Using telemetry and mark–recapture datasets, we quantify the impacts of cancer progression on the behaviour of wild devils by assessing how interaction patterns within the social network of a population change with increasing tumour load. The progression of DFTD negatively influences devils'' likelihood of interaction within their network. Infected devils were more active within their network late in the mating season, a pattern with repercussions for DFTD transmission. Our study provides a rare opportunity to quantify and understand the behavioural feedbacks of disease in wildlife and how they may affect transmission and population dynamics in general. |
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Keywords: | transmissible cancer sickness behaviour disease transmission devil facial tumour disease Tasmanian devil |
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