DOI: 10.5061/dryad.vhhmgqp15
title: Social network structure is robust to parasite induced changes in contact behavior of domestic sheep

description: To understand infections affect populations, it’s important to understand
 the relationship between parasitism and social behavior. Parasites can
 disrupt social networks in two main ways: by changing the behavior of
 infected individuals—often leading to decreased activity—and by prompting
 uninfected individuals to alter their behavior, such as avoiding those
 showing signs of illness. These behavioral adjustments can shift group
 dynamics and influence how parasites spread. In this study, we explored
 how a parasitic nematode infection influences both individual social
 interactions and the structure of social networks in sheep. We created
 three experimental treatments, each replicated across four independent
 groups: (1) all individuals infected (Parasitised), (2) all individuals
 uninfected (Non-parasitised), and (3) a mixture of infected and uninfected
 individuals (Mixed). We tracked social contact patterns using proximity
 loggers over four stages of infection: prior to infection, the pre-patent
 period, the patent phase, and after the infection had cleared. Our
 findings revealed that infected lambs—whether in fully parasitised or
 mixed groups—engaged in fewer social contacts after becoming infected.
 Interestingly, in the mixed groups, uninfected lambs did not reduce their
 interactions with infected group members, maintaining contact levels
 similar to those before infection. These results indicate that parasitic
 infections can alter social behaviors across an entire group, and that the
 behavioral responses may depend not only on an individual's infection
 status but also on the composition and responses of the social group as a
 whole.
description: # Social network structure is robust to parasite induced changes in
 contact behavior of domestic sheep
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.vhhmgqp15](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.vhhmgqp15) These datsets were collected on a research farm in Edinburgh, Scotland (Summer 2019). ## Description of the data and file structure ##### **Datasets included:** **1\. Lamb social contact behaviour \(collected using Sirtrack proximity loggers\)** * Frequency, duration and total duration of contacts between lambs housed in social groups of 5 individuals, 24 hours per day for 10 weeks. * Sheep ID (60 lambs were used in study), Logger ID (ID of proximity logger), Sex of each lamb (male or female), Treatment Group ID (three treatment groups, each with 4 replicate social groups were established: Parasitised; all lambs were infected with a parasitic nematode, Non-parasitised; all lambs remained uninfected and Mixed; part of each group were infected, and part of the group remained uninfected), Plot ID (12 plots were used to house each social group), Group ID (60 lambs were separated into 12 social groups), Day, Week, Infection Status (a proportion of the lambs were experimentally infected with a parasitic nematode on week 2 of the study) and Phase (study can be separated into four phases of parasite infection: pre-parasite, pre-patent, patent-parasite, post-parasite). * **2\. Animal measurements** * Weekly body mass measurements of lambs (kg). * Weekly faecal egg counts of lambs (eggs per gram of faeces). * Sheep ID, Sex, Treatment Group ID, Group ID, Week and Infection Status. Both datasets contain Sheep ID variable which can be used to link the animal measurements (weight and parasite status) to the behaviour data.