Periodic Reporting for period 2 - EPIDEMIC (Experimental Epidemiology in Ant Societies)
Berichtszeitraum: 2021-08-01 bis 2023-01-31
Theoretical epidemiology predicts that disease dynamics will depend in large part on a group's social interaction network, but empirical data are scarce. Experimental epidemiology is currently hampered by a lack of study systems enabling a rigorous investigation of the causal link between group composition, network structure and disease transmission. This project tackles this challenge using a novel system, the clonal raider ant, a social insect whose unique biology affords control over the main aspects of colony composition that are thought to modulate social network structure, and therefore, disease transmission. The approach will combine automated techniques for behavioral analyses with molecular tools, and will develop new methods to monitor pathogen transmission in real time. Capitalizing on this biological model and these tools, we will create experimental groups that are theoretically predicted to vary in transmission risk, inoculate these experimental groups with pathogens, and quantify infection propagation in real time. This will allow us to experimentally test some of the predictions from theoretical epidemiology, and to identify some of the properties of social groups that protect them against disease. By linking theoretical epidemiology to real-world disease dynamics, this project has the potential to improve our ability to predict disease dynamics in social groups.