Scientists have come up with a new way to figure out how diseases spread in wild animals and how many samples are needed to detect them.
Wildlife organizations often don't have enough money and staff to collect a sufficient number of samples to accurately understand how common diseases are in animals.
Effective monitoring of key wildlife species is crucial to prevent pandemics originating from animals, like COVID-19.
How it was researched
Before, scientists thought that animals in a group get sick on their own, but actually, they tend to stay close together.
When animals live in family groups, they are more likely to catch contagious diseases from each other.
If we can choose random samples, testing one animal in a family can tell us if the others are also sick.
This correlation within clusters allows biologists to collect fewer samples while still predicting disease prevalence.
The method is flexible and can be applied to any animal species.
New methods can help
The study focused on Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) in deer, which tend to cluster in family groups and are highly susceptible to the disease.
One drawback is that practical constraints may increase sample size requirements despite the correlation with family groups.
An online app is being developed to assist biologists in determining the realistic number of samples needed based on various factors.
The research was funded by the Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program.
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