LAUSR

The degree of relatedness and an interacting unifying central member can exacerbate disease transmission within a social group. The severity of the disease depends on the route, dose and frequency of infection. Group-living social mammals thus have the ability to exacerbate the spread of the disease. Lions Panthera leo are social carnivores with individuals interacting on a regular basis. We used observations of lion behaviours to define potential transmission routes between individuals and the likely spread of diseases in the lion population of the Kruger National Park. This allowed description of the epidemiology of bovine tuberculosis to mimic and predict the potential rate of horizontal disease transmission within lion prides. Social network analysis allowed us to identify the most important pride members and the implications of interactions with these members for spreading disease in prides. Three prides in the southern region of the Kruger National Park comprised degrees of relatedness within prides that predict variable links between pride members. The interactive behaviour of young lions with each other, a key element of learning in social mammals, play a key role in dictating contact rates that enhance disease transmission. Even so, within prides, R0 < 1 predicts that bovine tuberculosis should disappear from a pride. Persistence of the disease as noted for lions in Kruger can only realize through unlikely transmissions or through feeding on infected prey. Our results support lions as a spill-over host.