Social organization is a key aspect of animal ecology, closely interlinked with all aspects of animal behaviour. The structure of animal assemblages is highly diverse, both within and between species. The complexity and variety of social systems and the dynamic nature of interactions and dependencies between members of social groups have long been major obstacles for developing operational characterizations of social organization. Here, social network analysis, a set of statistical tools rooted in graph theory, suggests itself as a potential solution for this problem, by offering quantitative measures for various aspects of social relationships. In this review I will first introduce network analysis as a tool to characterize the social organization of animal groups and population and, then, focus on the application of this method for epidemiological modelling, specifically the prediction of spreading patterns of pathogens in livestock and its potential for informing targeted surveillance and planning of intervention measures.

中文翻译：

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动物社会组织的定量表征：流行病学建模的应用

社会组织是动物生态学的一个关键方面，与动物行为的各个方面密切相关。在物种内部和物种之间，动物组合的结构高度不同。社会系统的复杂性和多样性以及社会群体成员之间互动和依存关系的动态性质长期以来一直是发展社会组织运作特征的主要障碍。在这里，社交网络分析（一种扎根于图论的统计工具）通过提供针对社交关系各个方面的定量度量，将其自身视为解决此问题的潜在方法。在这篇评论中，我将首先介绍网络分析作为表征动物群体和种群的社会组织的工具，然后，