Transmission networks and targeted disease control

Julian DREWE
The Royal Veterinary College, University of London, UK jdrewe@rvc.ac.uk

(Seminar in English)

Julian Drewe is a Senior Lecturer in Veterinary Epidemiology at the Royal Veterinary College in London. His interests cover all aspects of epidemiology and disease management, with current research focusing on improving animal health surveillance and wildlife disease control. In this seminar Julian will present some research findings from recent projects in which he has been involved in the UK and South Africa, including insights into improving tuberculosis diagnosis in wild badgers, and targeted disease control in wild meerkats in the Kalahari. These projects integrate quantitative approaches, such as capture-recapture modelling and social networks, applied to field data collected as part of long-term research programs. Together, these findings highlight the importance of considering host ecology and environmental factors when designing disease control and management protocols.

Recent publications:

Silk, M.J., Drewe, J.A., Delahay, R.J., Weber, N., Steward, L.C., Wilson-Aggarwal, J., Boots, M., Hodgson, D.J., Croft, D.P. & McDonald, R.A. (2018) Quantifying direct and indirect contacts for the potential transmission of infection between species using a multilayer contact network. Behaviour, doi: 10.1163/1568539X-00003493.

Buzdugan, S.N., Vergne, T., Grosbois, V., Delahay, R.J. and Drewe, J.A. (2017) Inference of the infection status of individuals using longitudinal testing data from cryptic populations: Towards a probabilistic approach to diagnosis. Scientific Reports 7: 1111.

Patterson, S.J., Drewe, J.A., Pfeiffer, D.U. and Clutton-Brock, T.H. (2017) Social and environmental factors affect tuberculosis-related mortality in wild meerkats. Journal of Animal Ecology 86: 442-450.