sentence: Evidence suggests that the disease has a direct transmission route and environmental contamination is the main route of transmission.Modelling studies have tended to neglect the potential for red squirrels to survive SQPV infection , with the exception of one ( Gurnell et al. 2006 ) , although in an experimental infection study , the single survivor ( of four ) displayed lesions for over 6 weeks , during which time it had the potential to transmit SQPV to conspecifics ( Tompkins et al. 2002 ) .