Chronic infections can shape epidemic exposure: Pathogen co-occurrence networks in the Serengeti lions

Nicholas M. Fountain-Jones; Craig Packer; Maude Jacquot; F. Guillaume Blanchet; Karen Terio; Meggan E. Craft

Our findings indicate that the lion's pathogen infra-community is complex, but interactions between pathogens are important. We identify useful candidate interactions between pathogens thereby reducing some of this complexity. More broadly, our work demonstrates how different network approaches can be combined to gain insights into the ecological factors underlying pathogen structures and interactions and how this can be applied to the study of pathogen communities of wildlife populations. In addition to these biological insights, the study highlights several critical areas for methodological improvement that can currently limit robust inference of pathogen interactions from time-series serological and qPCR data. Addressing these limitations is timely, given the ongoing threat of wildlife populations decline, creating an urgent need to integrate better molecular, ecological and network information to guide strategies for disease control.