1. The distribution of parasites in host populations is integral to simulations of parasite populations.
2. We compared three methods to measure parasite aggregation, namely the Hoover, coefficient of variation and I₁₀ indices, using field data from a range of fish parasites. These included anisakid nematodes, trypanorhynch cestodes and polyopisthocotylean monogeneans from 10 previously published studies and one unpublished study.
3. Positive correlations among the three methods were high. Standard errors and estimated biases obtained by bootstrap methods were smallest for the Hoover index. There was no evidence for a bias–variance trade-off.
4. The analyses suggest that the Hoover index is to be preferred as a measure of aggregation although difficulties remain in deriving theoretical and operational definitions of aggregation.

中文翻译：

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以澳大利亚鱼类寄生虫为例测量寄生虫聚集的三种方法

1. 寄主种群中寄生虫的分布是寄生虫种群模拟的组成部分。
2. 我们比较了三种测量寄生虫聚集的方法，即胡佛、变异系数和I ₁₀指数，使用来自一系列鱼类寄生虫的现场数据。其中包括来自 10 项先前发表的研究和一项未发表的研究中的异尖线虫、锥虫和多螺线虫。
3. 三种方法之间的正相关性很高。通过引导方法获得的标准误差和估计偏差对于胡佛指数来说最小。没有证据表明存在偏差-方差权衡。
4. 分析表明，尽管在推导出聚合的理论和操作定义方面仍然存在困难，但首选胡佛指数作为聚合的度量。