Contact rate analysis.
We quantified contact rates among domestic and wild
birds inside villages and in surrounding agricultural fields
using scan sampling (Martin and Bateson, 2007). We
placed 5–10 sampling points between houses in each
village and in agricultural fields adjacent to houses. Each
point comprised a 50 m diameter circle situated such that
the circles’ perimeters were at least 100 m apart. The
location and behavior of all wild and domestic animals in
the sampling plot was recorded, as well as humans.
The research team consisted of one poultry sample
collector, two wild bird sample collectors, two researchers
who conducted scan sampling, and one researcher who
administered questionnaires. All members of the research
team carried out the same roles for all years of the study.