@article{SchererRadchukStaubachetal.2019,
  author    = {Scherer, Cedric and Radchuk, Viktoriia and Staubach, Christoph and Mueller, Sophie and Blaum, Niels and Thulke, Hans-Hermann and Kramer-Schadt, Stephanie},
  title     = {Seasonal host life-history processes fuel disease dynamics at different spatial scales},
  series = {Journal of animal ecology : a journal of the British Ecological Society},
  volume    = {88},
  journal   = {Journal of animal ecology : a journal of the British Ecological Society},
  number    = {11},
  publisher = {Wiley},
  address   = {Hoboken},
  issn      = {0021-8790},
  doi       = {10.1111/1365-2656.13070},
  pages     = {1812 -- 1824},
  year      = {2019},
  abstract  = {Understanding the drivers underlying disease dynamics is still a major challenge in disease ecology, especially in the case of long-term disease persistence. Even though there is a strong consensus that density-dependent factors play an important role for the spread of diseases, the main drivers are still discussed and, more importantly, might differ between invasion and persistence periods. Here, we analysed long-term outbreak data of classical swine fever, an important disease in both wild boar and livestock, prevalent in the wild boar population from 1993 to 2000 in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. We report outbreak characteristics and results from generalized linear mixed models to reveal what factors affected infection risk on both the landscape and the individual level. Spatiotemporal outbreak dynamics showed an initial wave-like spread with high incidence during the invasion period followed by a drop of incidence and an increase in seroprevalence during the persistence period. Velocity of spread increased with time during the first year of outbreak and decreased linearly afterwards, being on average 7.6 km per quarter. Landscape- and individual-level analyses of infection risk indicate contrasting seasonal patterns. During the persistence period, infection risk on the landscape level was highest during autumn and winter seasons, probably related to spatial behaviour such as increased long-distance movements and contacts induced by rutting and escaping movements. In contrast, individual-level infection risk peaked in spring, probably related to the concurrent birth season leading to higher densities, and was significantly higher in piglets than in reproductive animals. Our findings highlight that it is important to investigate both individual- and landscape-level patterns of infection risk to understand long-term persistence of wildlife diseases and to guide respective management actions. Furthermore, we highlight that exploring different temporal aggregation of the data helps to reveal important seasonal patterns, which might be masked otherwise.},
  language  = {en}
}
@misc{HeinkenSchmidtvonOheimbetal.2006,
  author    = {Heinken, Thilo and Schmidt, Marcus and von Oheimb, Goddert and Kriebitzsch, Wolf-Ulrich and Ellenberg, Hermann},
  title     = {Soil seed banks near rubbing trees indicate dispersal of plant species into forests by wild boar},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-46476},
  year      = {2006},
  abstract  = {Current knowledge about processes that generate long-distance dispersal of plants is still limited despite its importance for persistence of populations and colonization of new potential habitats. Today wild large mammals are presumed to be important vectors for long-distance transport of diaspores within and between European temperate forest patches, and in particular wild boars recently came into focus. Here we use a specific habit of wild boar, i.e. wallowing in mud and subsequent rubbing against trees, to evaluate epizoic dispersal of vascular plant diaspores. We present soil seed bank data from 27 rubbing trees versus 27 control trees from seven forest areas in Germany. The mean number of viable seeds and the plant species number were higher in soil samples near rubbing trees compared with control trees. Ten of the 20 most frequent species were more frequent, and many species exclusively appeared in the soil samples near rubbing trees. The large number of plant species and seeds - approximated > 1000 per tree - in the soils near rubbing trees is difficult to explain unless the majority were dispersed by wild boar. Hooked and bristly diaspores, i.e. those adapted to epizoochory, were more frequent, above that many species with unspecialised diaspores occurred exclusively near rubbing trees. Different to plant species closely tied to forest species which occur both in forest and open vegetation, and non-forest species were more frequent near rubbing trees compared with controls. These findings are consistent with previous studies on diaspore loads in the coats and hooves of shot wild boars. However, our method allows to identify the transport of diaspores from the open landscape into forest stands where they might especially emerge after disturbance, and a clustered distribution of epizoochorically dispersed seeds. Moreover, accumulation of seeds of wetness indicators near rubbing trees demonstrates directed dispersal of plant species inhabiting wet places between remote wallows.},
  language  = {en}
}