You have gathered historical data on the prevalence of a pathogen throughout a population of bats.You have also learned the dynamics of transmission and the rate of infection.You want to know how this pathogen may spread to other colonies of bats adjacent to the population you are studying.What might be a good way to do this?
A) Inoculate the adjacent colonies and watch to see how the pathogen spreads on its own
B) Bring all the bats into captivity and expose them to the pathogen then measure how the bats from each colony respond
C) Set up a field experiment where the prey spread the pathogen naturally
D) Use historical data, the knowledge of its infection rate, and population dynamics to create a model and predict how it might spread.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The best choice to predict how the pathogen might spread to other colonies of bats adjacent to the population being studied is to use the historical data, knowledge of infection rate and population dynamics to create a mathematical model. Inoculating adjacent colonies or bringing all bats into captivity and exposing them to the pathogen are not ethically sound options for collecting data on disease transmission. Setting up a field experiment where the prey spreads the pathogen naturally may not give accurate results as there may be other factors at play which may affect the pathogen's spread. Therefore, the best option is to use a mathematical model based on collected data to predict how the pathogen may spread.

You Have Gathered Historical Data on the Prevalence of a Pathogen