Disruption of metapopulation structure reduces Tasmanian devil facial tumour disease spread at the expense of abundance and genetic diversity

Durrant, R. , Hamede, R., Wells, K. and Lurgi, M. (2021) Disruption of metapopulation structure reduces Tasmanian devil facial tumour disease spread at the expense of abundance and genetic diversity. Pathogens, 10(12), 1592. (doi: 10.3390/pathogens10121592) (PMID:34959547) (PMCID:PMC8705368)

Abstract

Metapopulation structure plays a fundamental role in the persistence of wildlife populations. It can also drive the spread of infectious diseases and transmissible cancers such as the Tasmanian devil facial tumour disease (DFTD). While disrupting this structure can reduce disease spread, it can also impair host resilience by disrupting gene flow and colonisation dynamics. Using an individual-based metapopulation model we investigated the synergistic effects of host dispersal, disease transmission rate and inter-individual contact distance for transmission, on the spread and persistence of DFTD from local to regional scales. Disease spread, and the ensuing population declines, are synergistically determined by individuals’ dispersal, disease transmission rate and within-population mixing. Transmission rates can be magnified by high dispersal and inter-individual transmission distance. The isolation of local populations effectively reduced metapopulation-level disease prevalence but caused severe declines in metapopulation size and genetic diversity. The relative position of managed (i.e., isolated) local populations had a significant effect on disease prevalence, highlighting the importance of considering metapopulation structure when implementing metapopulation-scale disease control measures. Our findings suggest that population isolation is not an ideal management method for preventing disease spread in species inhabiting already fragmented landscapes, where genetic diversity and extinction risk are already a concern.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: Funding: The Australian Research Council and the National Science Foundation provided financial support for collecting data to parameterise our models (DE170101116; LP170101105; NSF-DEB 1316549).
• Keywords: dispersal, contact distance, landscape-scale genetic diversity, disease transmission, disease management, metapopulation networks, metapopulation disease dynamics, fragmentation
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Durrant, Rowan

Creator Roles

Durrant, R.: Methodology, Formal analysis, Investigation, Data curation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review and editing

• Authors: Durrant, R., Hamede, R., Wells, K., and Lurgi, M.
• College/School: College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Biodiversity, One Health & Veterinary Medicine
• Journal Name: Pathogens
• Publisher: MDPI
• ISSN: 2076-0817
• ISSN (Online): 2076-0817
• Published Online: 08 December 2021
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2021 The Authors
• First Published: First published in Pathogens 10(12): 1592
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons licence