Social Network Analysis of Cattle Movement in Sukhothai Province, Thailand: A Study to Improve Control Measurements

• Main Authors: Supot Noopataya, Sukanya Thongratsakul, Chaithep Poolkhet
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hindawi Limited 2015-01-01
• Series: Veterinary Medicine International
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2015/587252

The aim of this study is to analyse the pattern of cattle movement in Sukhothai province, Thailand. A validated questionnaire was applied to 308 respondents related to cattle farming using one-step snowball sampling. The results showed that most of the nodes are farmers who move their animals in the province. The average normalized degree centrality and normalized closeness centrality were low (<0.01 and 0.04, resp.). We found that traders are the nodes with a high value of centrality. This corresponds with the cutpoint analysis results that traders are outstanding. In conclusion, the relevant authorities should focus on the nodes such as traders for controlling disease. However, a measure to detect disease in the early stages needs to be implemented.