Abstract:
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The field of disease ecology seeks to understand interactions between hosts, pathogens, and the environment in order to understand transmission and endemicity. Zoonotic diseases pose specific problems wherein the pathogen cycles between animal and human hosts. Understanding the full system provides insight into potential public health interventions. Statistical approaches often require assessments of both the disease and the observation process in a spatial and spatiotemporal setting. We explore spatial patterns of plague incidence within animal hosts taking into account different surveillance sampling strategies. The analysis requires spatial adjustments for preferential sampling, as well as spatial statistical analysis in both geographic and principal components spaces.
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