The degree of relatedness and an interacting unifying central member can exacerbate disease transmission within a social group. The severity of the disease depends on the route, dose and frequency of infection. Group-living social mammals thus have the ability to exacerbate the spread of the disease. Lions Panthera leo are social carnivores with individuals interacting on a regular basis. We used observations of lion behaviours to define potential transmission routes between individuals and the likely spread of diseases in the lion population of the Kruger National Park. This allowed description of the epidemiology of bovine tuberculosis to mimic and predict the potential rate of horizontal disease transmission within lion prides. Social network analysis allowed us to identify the most important pride members and the implications of interactions with these members for spreading disease in prides. Three prides in the southern region of the Kruger National Park comprised degrees of relatedness within prides that predict variable links between pride members. The interactive behaviour of young lions with each other, a key element of learning in social mammals, play a key role in dictating contact rates that enhance disease transmission. Even so, within prides, R₀ < 1 predicts that bovine tuberculosis should disappear from a pride. Persistence of the disease as noted for lions in Kruger can only realize through unlikely transmissions or through feeding on infected prey. Our results support lions as a spill-over host.

中文翻译：

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狮子通过社交网络从行为界面水平传播疾病

关联程度和相互作用的统一中心成员会加剧社会群体内的疾病传播。疾病的严重程度取决于感染的途径，剂量和频率。因此，生活在群体中的社会哺乳动物具有加剧疾病传播的能力。狮子豹是与个人定期互动的社交食肉动物。我们使用对狮子行为的观察来定义个体之间的潜在传播途径以及克鲁格国家公园狮子种群中疾病的可能传播。这可以描述牛结核病的流行病学，以模仿和预测狮子体内水平疾病传播的潜在速率。社交网络分析使我们能够确定最重要的自尊成员，以及与这些成员互动对自尊中传播疾病的影响。克鲁格国家公园南部地区的三个自豪感包含了这些自豪感之间的相关程度，这些关联性可以预测自豪感成员之间的可变联系。小狮子彼此之间的互动行为，这是社交哺乳动物学习的关键要素，在决定增加疾病传播的接触率中起关键作用。即使如此，在骄傲中R ₀ <1预测牛结核病应从骄傲中消失。如克鲁格的狮子所指出的那样，这种疾病的持久性只能通过不太可能的传播或以被感染的猎物为食来实现。我们的结果支持狮子作为溢出宿主。