PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Gregory F Albery
AU  - Chris Newman
AU  - Julius Bright Ross
AU  - Shweta Bansal
AU  - Christina Buesching
TI  - Negative density-dependent parasitism in a group-living carnivore
AID  - 10.1101/2020.06.15.153726
DP  - 2020 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2020.06.15.153726
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/11/12/2020.06.15.153726.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/11/12/2020.06.15.153726.full
AB  - Animals living at high population densities commonly experience greater exposure to disease, leading to increased parasite burdens. However, social animals can benefit immunologically and hygienically from cooperation, and individuals may alter their socio-spatial behaviour in response to infection, both of which could counteract density-related increases in exposure. Consequently, the costs and benefits of sociality for disease are often uncertain. Here, we use a long-term study of a wild European badger population (Meles meles) to investigate how within-population variation in host density determines infection with multiple parasites. Four out of five parasite taxa exhibited consistent spatial hotspots of infection, which peaked among badgers living in areas of low local population density. Combined movement, survival, spatial, and social network analyses revealed that parasite avoidance was the likely cause of this negative density dependence, with possible roles for localised mortality, encounter-dilution effects, and micronutrient-enhanced immunity. These findings demonstrate that animals can organise their societies in space to minimise parasite infection, with important implications for badger behavioural ecology and for the control of badger-associated diseases.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.