Extending statistical models for source attribution of zoonotic diseases: a study of campylobacteriosis

Preventing and controlling zoonoses through the design and implementation of public health policies requires a thorough understanding of transmission pathways. Modelling jointly the epidemiological data and genetic information of microbial isolates derived from cases provides a methodology for tracing back the source of infection. In this paper, the attribution probability for human cases of campylobacteriosis for each source, conditional on the extent to which each case resides in a rural compared to urban environment, is estimated. A model that incorporates genetic data and evolutionary processes is applied alongside a newly developed genetic-free model. We show that inference from each model is comparable except for rare microbial genotypes. Further, the effect of ‘rurality’ may be modelled linearly on the logit scale, with increasing rurality leading to the increasing likelihood of ruminant-sourced campylobacteriosis.