The DOI matches its Crossref record; 10 of the 10 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
A clarification of transmission terms in host-microparasite models: numbers, densities and areas
Open accessAbstract
Transmission is the driving force in the dynamics of any infectious disease. A crucial element in understanding disease dynamics, therefore, is the ‘transmission term’ describing the rate at which susceptible hosts are ‘converted’ into infected hosts by their contact with infectious material. Recently, the conventional form of this term has been increasingly questioned, and new terminologies and conventions have been proposed. Here, therefore, we review the derivation of transmission terms, explain the basis of confusion, and provide clarification. The root of the problem has been a failure to include explicit consideration of the area occupied by a host population, alongside both the number of infectious hosts and their density within the population. We argue that the terms ‘density-dependent transmission’ and ‘frequency-dependent transmission’ remain valid and useful (though a ‘fuller’ transmission term for the former is identified), but that the terms ‘mass action’, ‘true mass action’ and ‘pseudo mass action’ are all unhelpful and should be dropped. Also, contrary to what has often been assumed, the distinction between homogeneous and heterogeneous mixing in a host population is orthogonal to the distinction between density- and frequency-dependent transmission modes.
Overview
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Citations
Cites
Population biology of infectious diseases: Part I
Anderson, R. M., & May, R. M. (1979) · Nature · doi:10.1038/280361a0 · Cited by 3,185
How should pathogen transmission be modelled?
McCallum, H. (2001) · Trends in Ecology & Evolution · doi:10.1016/s0169-5347(01)02144-9 · Cited by 1,115
Ecology of Infectious Diseases in Natural Populations
(1995) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/cbo9780511629396 · Cited by 797
SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED DISEASES IN ANIMALS: ECOLOGICAL AND EVOLUTIONARY IMPLICATIONS
LOCKHART, A. B., THRALL, P. H., & ANTONOVICS, J. (1996) · Biological Reviews · doi:10.1111/j.1469-185x.1996.tb01281.x · Cited by 291
Swinton, Harwood, Grenfell, B. T., et al. (1998) · Journal of Animal Ecology · doi:10.1046/j.1365-2656.1998.00176.x · Cited by 216
Transmission dynamics of a zoonotic pathogen within and between wildlife host species
Begon, M., Hazel, S. M., Baxby, D., Bown, K., Cavanagh, R., Chantrey, J., Jones, T., & Bennett, M. (1999) · Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences · doi:10.1098/rspb.1999.0870 · Cited by 192
Self-citationPopulations and Infectious Diseases: Ecology or Epidemiology?
Anderson, R. M. (1991) · Journal of Animal Ecology · doi:10.2307/5443 · Cited by 111
Allometry and simple epidemic models for microparasites
Leo, G. A. D., & Dobson, A. P. (1996) · Nature · doi:10.1038/379720a0 · Cited by 83
Dynamics of a feline retrovirus (FeLV) in host populations with variable spatial structure
Gilot‐Fromont, E., Pontier, D., & Langlais, M. R. (1998) · Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences · doi:10.1098/rspb.1998.0404 · Cited by 52
Cited by
Wildlife diseases: from individuals to ecosystems: Ecology of wildlife diseases
Tompkins, D. M., Dunn, A. M., Smith, M. J., & Telfer, S. (2011) · Journal of Animal Ecology · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2656.2010.01742.x · Cited by 448
Disease Spread, Susceptibility and Infection Intensity: Vicious Circles?
Beldomenico, P. M., & Begon, M. (2010) · Trends in Ecology & Evolution · doi:10.1016/j.tree.2009.06.015 · Cited by 359
Self-citationDoes land-use change increase the abundance of zoonotic reservoirs? Rodents say yes
Mendoza, H., Rubio, A. V., García-Peña, G. E., Suzán, G., & Simonetti, J. A. (2020) · European Journal of Wildlife Research · doi:10.1007/s10344-019-1344-9 · Cited by 74
Mariën, J., Borremans, B., Verhaeren, C., Kirkpatrick, L., Gryseels, S., Goüy de Bellocq, J., Günther, S., Sabuni, C. A., Massawe, A. W., Reijniers, J., et al. (2020) · Journal of Animal Ecology · doi:10.1111/1365-2656.13107 · Cited by 27
Metadata
- Authors
- BEGON, M., BENNETT, M., BOWERS, R. G., FRENCH, N. P., HAZEL, S. M., & TURNER, J.
- Venue
- Epidemiology and Infection
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press (CUP)
- Published
- 2002-08
- Volume
- 129
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 147-153
- ISSN
- 0950-2688 (ISSN-L)
- 1469-4409
- OpenAlex
- W2123252019
- Cited by
- 490
- References
- 10
- FWCI
- 6.00
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
How to cite
Cite CoChat for the checks on this page, and the paper for its own findings.
- This page
- CoChat. (2026). Citation check: A clarification of transmission terms in host-microparasite models: numbers, densities and areas. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1017/s0950268802007148
- The paper
- BEGON, M., BENNETT, M., BOWERS, R. G., FRENCH, N. P., HAZEL, S. M., & TURNER, J. (2002). A clarification of transmission terms in host-microparasite models: numbers, densities and areas. Epidemiology and Infection. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0950268802007148
Data sources
Bibliographic data: Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref.
Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.
