Seminar
Wendy Beauvais (LSHTM): Modeling the within-herd dynamics of Brucella - incorporating livestock reproduction cycles and seasonality
Control of Brucella, a zoonotic pathogen that can cause chronic debilitating disease in humans, is strongly reliant on vaccination of livestock. Models of Brucella sp. in livestock have so far taken no account of the fact that Brucella are primarily shed during the lambing and calving seasons, and that the reproductive cycle of livestock is age- and season-dependent. In a more complex model, seasonality and the livestock reproductive cycle have been incorporated, as well as between livestock-species mixing. The impacts of these assumptions in terms of vaccination programs, will be explored.
See also: http://parasitesandvectors.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13071-016-1327-6