Age-prevalence curves revisited

Changes in sero-prevalence (exposure), or infection, with age provide vital insights into the population dynamics of many wildlife diseases. We present a new model that provides a more flexible way of fitting age-prevalence... [ view full abstract ]

Changes in sero-prevalence (exposure), or infection, with age provide vital insights into the population dynamics of many wildlife diseases. We present a new model that provides a more flexible way of fitting age-prevalence data, in ways that lead to estimates of Ro, the basic reproductive number, for the pathogen and also indicate key ages that are particularly susceptible to infection or central for transmission to other age classes.
We will illustrate the use of these new methods using data for a number of terrestrial and marine wildlife disease systems.