A new phylodynamic model of Mycobacterium bovis transmission in a multi-host system uncovers the role of the unobserved reservoir

Abstract

For single host pathogens, pathogen genetic data have been transformative for understanding the transmission and control of many diseases, particuarly rapidly evolving RNA viruses. However garnering similar insights where pathogens are multi-host is more challenging, particularly when the evolution of the pathogen is slower and pathogen sampling often heavily biased. This is the case for Mycobacterium bovis, the causative agent of bovine Tuberculosis (bTB) and for which the Eurasian badger plays an as yet poorly understood role in transmission and spread. Here we have developed a computational model that incorporates M. bovis genetic data from cattle only with a highly abstracted model of an unobserved reservoir. Our research shows that a model in which the reservoir does not contribute to pathogen diversity, but is a source of infection in spatially localised areas around each farm, better describes the patterns of outbreaks observed in a population-level sample of a single M. bovis genotype in Northern Ireland over a period of 15 years, compared to models in which either the reservoir has no role, disease spread is spatially extensive, or where they generate considerable diversity on their own. While this reservoir model is not explicitly a model of badgers, its characteristics are consistent with other data that would suggest a reservoir consisting of infected badgers that contribute substantially to cattle infection, but could not maintain disease on their own.

Description

Publication history: Accepted - 25 Aprl 2021; Published online - 25 June 2021.

Keywords

Citation

O’Hare, A., Balaz, D., Wright, D. M., McCormick, C., McDowell, S., Trewby, H., Skuce, R. A. and Kao, R. R. (2021) ‘A new phylodynamic model of Mycobacterium bovis transmission in a multi-host system uncovers the role of the unobserved reservoir’, PLOS Computational Biology. Edited by M. P. Davenport, 17(6), p. e1009005. doi: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009005.

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