ArticlePloS one2019
The pig transport network in Switzerland: Structure, patterns, and implications for the transmission of infectious diseases between animal holdings.
Article in PloS one, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed.
- Data quality assessment of pig movements in the Norwegian Livestock Register reveals challenges for outbreak preparedness.BMC veterinary research · 2025Article
- Evolution of the Swiss pork production systems and logistics: the impact on infectious disease resilience.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Identifying effective surveillance measures for swine pathogens using contact networks and mathematical modeling.PloS one · 2025Article
- The swine market movement and structure in Mexico: Implications for animal welfare and environmental impact.PloS one · 2025Article
- Network analysis of pig movement data as an epidemiological tool: an Austrian case study.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Disentangling transport movement patterns of trucks either transporting pigs or while empty within a swine production system before and during the COVID-19 epidemic.Frontiers in veterinary science · 2023Article
- Direct and indirect pathways for the spread of African swine fever and other porcine infectious diseases: An application of the mental models approach.Transboundary and emerging diseases · 2022Article
- Modelling and assessing additional transmission routes for porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus: Vehicle movements and feed ingredients.Transboundary and emerging diseases · 2022Article
- Cattle transport network predicts endemic and epidemic foot-and-mouth disease risk on farms in Turkey.PLoS computational biology · 2022Article
- Network analysis of live pig movements in North Macedonia: Pathways for disease spread.Frontiers in veterinary science · 2022Article
- Outbreak detection for temporal contact data.Applied network science · 2021Article
- Illustration of Different Disease Transmission Routes in a Pig Trade Network by Monopartite and Bipartite Representation.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2020Article
- Impact of truck contamination and information sharing on foot-and-mouth disease spreading in beef cattle production systems.PloS one · 2020Article
- A Transdisciplinary Approach Supporting the Implementation of a Big Data Project in Livestock Production: An Example From the Swiss Pig Production Industry.Frontiers in veterinary science · 2019Article
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Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
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Abstract
The topology of animal transport networks contributes substantially to how fast and to what extent a disease can transmit between animal holdings. Therefore, public authorities in many countries mandate livestock holdings to report all movements of animals. However, the reported data often does not contain information about the exact sequence of transports, making it impossible to assess the effect of truck sharing and truck contamination on disease transmission. The aim of this study was to analyze the topology of the Swiss pig transport network by means of social network analysis and to assess the implications for disease transmission between animal holdings. In particular, we studied how additional information about transport sequences changes the topology of the contact network. The study is based on the official animal movement database in Switzerland and a sample of transport data from one transport company. The results show that the Swiss pig transport network is highly fragmented, which mitigates the risk of a large-scale disease outbreak. By considering the time sequence of transports, we found that even in the worst case, only 0.34% of all farm-pairs were connected within one month. However, both network connectivity and individual connectedness of farms increased if truck sharing and especially truck contamination were considered. Therefore, the extent to which a disease may be transmitted between animal holdings may be underestimated if we only consider data from the official animal movement database. Our results highlight the need for a comprehensive analysis of contacts between farms that includes indirect contacts due to truck sharing and contamination. As the nature of animal transport networks is inherently temporal, we strongly suggest the use of temporal network measures in order to evaluate individual and overall risk of disease transmission through animal transportation.
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