The role of disease in the organization of insect colonies has become an
important focus of research in evolutionary pathobiology, in which the
relationship of sociality and disease transmission can be comparatively and
experimentally analyzed. In this paper we use an individual-based model of
disease transmission to assess how an epidemic is influenced by worker density and activity level, the probability of disease transmission, and the structural organization of the nest. First, we observed in our model a non-linear interaction between worker density and the probability of disease transmission, in which high levels of both factors interact to enhance the likelihood of an epidemic. Additionally, when we incorporated in our model the widespread empirical observation that only a fraction of the worker population in social insect colonies is active at any given point in time, results suggested that relatively low levels of worker movement can have a significant impact on the spread of disease, slowing its transmission through the colony. Finally, we found that nests having even a simple spatial separation of chambers could delay the spread of infection and diminish the severity of an outbreak. The effect of nest structure became more pronounced as nest architecture became increasingly unidimensional, as in
the case of simple gallery nests. Our results suggest that both nest architecture and activity patterns are very important but hitherto unrecognized factors regulating the dynamics of disease transmission in social insect colonies.
Keywords: agent-based model, epizootic
Back to Display Presentations, Section Cb. Apiculture and Social Insects
Back to Posters
Back to The 2003 ESA Annual Meeting and Exhibition