Emerging infectious diseases may spread across pig trade networks in Thailand once introduced: a network analysis approach
Issued Date
2022-08-01
Resource Type
ISSN
00494747
eISSN
15737438
Scopus ID
2-s2.0-85131712772
Pubmed ID
35687155
Journal Title
Tropical Animal Health and Production
Volume
54
Issue
4
Rights Holder(s)
SCOPUS
Bibliographic Citation
Tropical Animal Health and Production Vol.54 No.4 (2022)
Suggested Citation
Wiratsudakul A., Wongnak P., Thanapongtharm W. Emerging infectious diseases may spread across pig trade networks in Thailand once introduced: a network analysis approach. Tropical Animal Health and Production Vol.54 No.4 (2022). doi:10.1007/s11250-022-03205-8 Retrieved from: https://repository.li.mahidol.ac.th/handle/20.500.14594/83181
Title
Emerging infectious diseases may spread across pig trade networks in Thailand once introduced: a network analysis approach
Author(s)
Author's Affiliation
Other Contributor(s)
Abstract
In Thailand, pork is one of the most consumed meats nationwide. Pig farming is hence an important business in the country. However, 95% of the farms were considered smallholders raising only 50 pigs or less. With limited budgets and resources, the biosecurity level in these farms is relatively low. Pig movements have been previously identified as a risk factor in the spread of infectious diseases. Therefore, the present study aimed to explicitly analyze the pig movement network structure and assess its vulnerability to the spread of emerging diseases in Thailand. We used official electronic records of nationwide pig movements throughout the year 2021 to construct a directed weighted one-mode network. Degree centrality, degree distribution, connected components, network community, and modularity were measured to explore the network architectures and properties. In this network, 484,483 pig movements were captured. In which, 379,948 (78.42%) were moved toward slaughterhouses and hence excluded from further analyses. From the remaining links, we suggested that the pig movement network in Thailand was vulnerable to the spread of emerging infectious diseases. Within the network, we found a strongly connected component (SCC) connecting 1044 subdistricts (38.6% of the nodes), a giant weakly connected component (GWCC) covering 98.2% of the nodes (2654/2704), and inter-regional communities with overall network modularity of 0.68. The disease may rapidly spread throughout the country. A better understanding of the nationwide pig movement networks is helpful in tailoring control interventions to cope with the newly emerged diseases once introduced.