Monitoring and Surveillance Systems

Change of Livestock Trade Networks during Epidemic Outbreaks

---

Abstract

The trade of livestock is an essential risk factor in the spread of infectious animal diseases. In order to allow for efficient back tracing and forward tracing in case of a disease outbreak, all EU member states are obliged to report livestock movements to central databases. We focus on pig trade in Germany as an example of such a data set. Our aim is to investigate the impact of a disease outbreak on the network structure. In order to measure this impact, we make use of real outbreak data of classical swine fever.Being logistic hubs and responsible for large animal movements, traders play a key role in the trade network. In order to quantify network changes during a disease outbreak, it is hence strongly advisable to use information about the holding type in the pig production chain. However, in many datasets the types of the producing farms or whether the agent is a trader, is unknown.

How to Cite:

Lentz, H. H. & Köppel, L., (2019) “Change of Livestock Trade Networks during Epidemic Outbreaks”, SafePork 13(1), 121. doi: https://doi.org//safepork.11212