Constructing animal networks for parasite transmission inference

Abstract For free-ranging wildlife, it is often more practical to quantify interactions between individuals rather than successful transmission events; however, defining and quantifying transmission-relevant interactions is non-trivial. Researchers have choices in the technology used to collect data on animal locations in space and time as well as the methods of analysis to define network edges from those data. These choices can significantly affect network structure and subsequent inferences drawn about transmission. The chapter explores empirical and theoretical examples of network data collection and analysis to highlight important considerations for transmission inference. Since parasite–host behavior feedbacks have been understudied in network analyses, we discuss how to incorporate these feedbacks into network applications using existing and novel approaches.