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Emerging infectious diseases may spread across pig trade networks in Thailand once introduced: a network analysis approach

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Abstract

In Thailand, pork is one of the most consumed meats nationwide. Pig farming is hence an important business in the country. However, 95% of the farms were considered smallholders raising only 50 pigs or less. With limited budgets and resources, the biosecurity level in these farms is relatively low. Pig movements have been previously identified as a risk factor in the spread of infectious diseases. Therefore, the present study aimed to explicitly analyze the pig movement network structure and assess its vulnerability to the spread of emerging diseases in Thailand. We used official electronic records of nationwide pig movements throughout the year 2021 to construct a directed weighted one-mode network. Degree centrality, degree distribution, connected components, network community, and modularity were measured to explore the network architectures and properties. In this network, 484,483 pig movements were captured. In which, 379,948 (78.42%) were moved toward slaughterhouses and hence excluded from further analyses. From the remaining links, we suggested that the pig movement network in Thailand was vulnerable to the spread of emerging infectious diseases. Within the network, we found a strongly connected component (SCC) connecting 1044 subdistricts (38.6% of the nodes), a giant weakly connected component (GWCC) covering 98.2% of the nodes (2654/2704), and inter-regional communities with overall network modularity of 0.68. The disease may rapidly spread throughout the country. A better understanding of the nationwide pig movement networks is helpful in tailoring control interventions to cope with the newly emerged diseases once introduced.

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Availability of data and material

The datasets generated and analyzed during the current study are not publicly available due to security and privacy reasons as they contain great details on actors involved in the pig movements but are selectively available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully thank the Department of Livestock Development, Thailand, for providing us with the electronic data of pig movements.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Clinical Sciences and Public Health and the Monitoring and Surveillance Center for Zoonotic Diseases in Wildlife and Exotic Animals, Faculty of Veterinary Science, Mahidol University, Nakhon Pathom, Thailand

    Anuwat Wiratsudakul

  2. Université de Lyon, INRAE, VetAgro Sup, UMR EPIA, 69280, Marcy-l’Etoile, France

    Phrutsamon Wongnak

  3. Université Clermont Auvergne, INRAE, VetAgro Sup, UMR EPIA, 63122, Saint-Genès-Champanelle, France

    Phrutsamon Wongnak

  4. Department of Livestock Development (DLD), Bangkok, Thailand

    Weerapong Thanapongtharm

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  1. Anuwat Wiratsudakul
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  2. Phrutsamon Wongnak
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  3. Weerapong Thanapongtharm
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Contributions

AW designed the study, analyzed raw data, performed network analysis, and wrote the manuscript. PW performed spatial visualization of the network. WT provided raw data and guidance on data analysis and interpretation. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Anuwat Wiratsudakul.

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The study was completely based on secondary electronic data and computer simulations. No humans or animals are involved. Thus, ethical approval was not required. However, our study was approved by the Department of Livestock Development, Thailand.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Wiratsudakul, A., Wongnak, P. & Thanapongtharm, W. Emerging infectious diseases may spread across pig trade networks in Thailand once introduced: a network analysis approach. Trop Anim Health Prod 54, 209 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11250-022-03205-8

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