Representing The United Kingdom's Cattle Herd As Static And Dynamic Networks

Main Category: Veterinary
Also Included In: Biology / Biochemistry;  Infectious Diseases / Bacteria / Viruses
Article Date: 15 Oct 2008 - 1:00 PDT

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The British government has collected data on the movement of every cow in the UK since the 1990s. Mathematical models of these movements have proved valuable in understanding how the movement of cattle contributes to the spread of cattle diseases.

We use simulated diseases to examine the different ways in which cattle movements may be represented as mathematical networks, and show that the simple static representations used in the past are significantly inferior to more complex, dynamic representations.

This clearly informs how network models of cattle movements should be constructed in the future.

Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

Proceedings B is the Royal Society's flagship biological research journal, dedicated to the rapid publication and broad dissemination of high-quality research papers, reviews and comment and reply papers. The scope of journal is diverse and is especially strong in organismal biology.

http://www.publishing.royalsociety.org/proceedingsb

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