Meggan

Craft

Associate Professor
Ecology, Evolution and Behavior

The Craft lab is interested in the following question: How do animal contact structure and movement affect the spread of infectious disease? Our research is inherently interdisciplinary as we often work at the intersection of environmental, human, and animal health.

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Research statement

I am an infectious disease ecologist; the broad aim of my research program is to understand infectious disease dynamics in animal and human populations. I test hypotheses regarding disease spread and consequent control through parameterizing theoretical disease models with empirical data. I am interested in two fundamental areas: (i) How are pathogens maintained in multi-host ecosystems? (ii) How does heterogeneity in population contact structure affect pathogen dynamics? My research is inherently interdisciplinary as I work at the intersection of environmental, human, and animal health.

Selected publications

  • Fountain-Jones, N.M., S. Kraberger, R.B. Gagne, D.R. Trumbo, P.E. Salerno, W.C. Funk, K. Crooks, R. Biek, M. Alldredge, K. Logan, G. Baele, S. Dellicour, H.B. Ernest, S. VandeWoude, S. Carver & M.E. Craft. (2021) Host relatedness and landscape connectivity shape pathogen spread in the puma, a large secretive carnivore. Communications Biology, 12. doi: 10.1038/s42003-020-01548-2
  • White, L.A., S. VandeWoude & M.E. Craft. (2020) A mechanistic, stigmergy model of territory formation in solitary animals: Territorial behavior can dampen disease prevalence but increase persistence. PLOS Computational Biology. 16: e1007457. doi: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1007457
  • Murray, M.H., C.A. Sánchez, D.J. Becker, K.A. Byers, K.E.L. Worsley-Tonks & M.E. Craft. (2019) City-sicker? A meta-analysis of wildlife health and urbanization. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 17: 575-583. doi:10.1002/fee.2126
  • Rohr, J.R., C.B. Barrett, D.J. Civitello, M.E. Craft, B. Delius, G.A. De Leo, P.J. Hudson, N. Jouanard, K.H. Nguyen, R.S. Ostfeld, J.V. Remais, G. Riveau, S.H. Sokolow & D. Tilman. Emerging human infectious diseases and the links to global food production. (2019) Nature Sustainability, 2: 445-456. doi:10.1038/s41893-019-0293-3
  • White, L.A., J.D. Forester & M.E. Craft. (2018) Disease outbreak thresholds emerge from interactions between movement behavior, landscape structure, and epidemiology. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 115: 7374-7379.
  • White, L.A., J.D. Forester & M.E. Craft. (2017) Using contact networks to explore mechanisms of parasite transmission in wildlife. Biological Reviews, 92: 389-409. doi: 10.1111/brv.12236
  • Craft, M.E. (2015) Infectious disease transmission and contact networks in wildlife and livestock. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B- Biological Sciences, 370: 20140107. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2014.0107
  • Reynolds, J.J.H., B.T. Hirsch, S.D. Gehrt & M.E. Craft. (2015) Raccoon contact networks predict seasonal susceptibility to rabies outbreaks and limitations of vaccination. Journal of Animal Ecology, 84:1720-1731. doi: 10.1111/1365-2656.12422
  • Reynolds, J.J.H., M. Torremorell & M.E. Craft. (2014) Mathematical modeling of influenza A virus dynamics within swine farms and the effects of vaccination. PLoS ONE, 9: e106177. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0111832