However, this effect was not consistent across all group sizes, and relatively greater impacts were achieved at lower group sizes, particularly just below the threshold level.
However, at lower group sizes, as occur throughout many areas where bTB persists in cattle, external sources of infection are likely to assume a much greater significance.
The latter analysis was performed to check whether the lack of some ERBB2 associations in the TP53 subgroups was due to lower group sizes.
At lower group sizes, at or just below the threshold population density for disease persistence, the parameters of infection itself, such as disease-induced mortality and the rates of transfer between different infectious states, became more important in influencing prevalence.
At these lower group sizes, there is a more heterogeneous distribution of infection across groups, and hence it is more likely that external infection will result in disease being introduced into fully susceptible groups that do not have contiguous borders with infected groups.
A relatively higher frequency of contacts between badgers at lower densities would have the effect of lowering the threshold for disease persistence in much the same way as increased external transmission does, and thus the predictions of the model for lower social group sizes should be treated with caution, and considered as lower bounds in terms of disease persistence and prevalence.
Outputs from simulations using lower equilibrium group sizes (2 6) were non-parametrically distributed, although the larger equilibrium group sizes yielded parametric data.
taxa, rates of female female agonism were higher within populations that relied more on foods that occurred in patches that were medium-sized relative to group size and lower in the species that fed more often on foods that were dispersed or occurred in smaller patches (Mitchell et al. 1991; Barton et al. 1996; Boinski et al. 2002).
In contrast, data presented by Woxvold [ 26] suggest a lower variance with increasing group size for apostle birds (Struthidea cinerea), emphasizing that breeding systems, among other factors, need to be considered.
