Genetic structure of black rat populations in a rural plague focus in Madagascar
Bibliographic record
Abstract
The genetic structure of reservoir populations is a key characteristic in understanding the persistence of infectious diseases in natural systems. In the Highlands of Madagascar, where plague has persisted since 1920, the black rat, Rattus rattus (L., 1758), is the sole species acting as a reservoir of the disease. Ecological surveys have shown a clear correlation between the locations of the plague-persistence area in Madagascar (above 800 m elevation) and the distribution area of one endemic plague vector, the flea Synopsyllus fonquerniei , which is found exclusively on rats living outdoors. This clear habitat segregation has led to the suggestion that R. rattus populations in the central highlands are divided into indoor- and outdoor-dwelling populations. Using eight microsatellite markers, we analysed the genetic structure of R. rattus populations living within a human plague focus in relation to habitat and geographic distance. We found that habitat by itself was not a structuring factor, unlike geographic distance. Nevertheless, the significant genotypic differentiation of R. rattus populations that was found at a fine spatial scale might relate to differences in population dynamics between rats in indoor and outdoor habitats.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".