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.
She/her/hers
United States
National Science Foundation, Biological Sciences (BIO)
People: Meggan Craft
2023 – 2026 Continue Reading MCA: Understanding the animal movement and disease transmission interface
Division of Environmental Biology
People: Eva Enns, Meggan Craft
2020 – 2021 Continue Reading RAPID: The effect of contact network structure on the spread of COVID-19: balancing disease mitigation and socioeconomic well-being
Haile BB, Budischak SA, Craft ME, Cressler CE, Forbes KM, Hall RJ. (2026). Food Subsidy Effects on Host Foraging Behavior Shape Host-Macroparasite Infection Dynamics. Ecology and evolution, 16(1)
Hewitt J, Wilson-Henjum G, Chandler JC, Phillips AT, Diel DG, Walter WD, Baker A, Høy-Petersen J, Bastille-Rousseau G, Kishimoto T, Wittemyer G, Alder J, Hathaway S, Manlove KR, Gallo T, Mullinax J, Coriell C, Payne M, Craft ME, Garwood TJ, Wolf TM, Diuk-Wasser MA, VanAcker MC, Plimpton LD, Wilber MQ, Grove D, Kosiewska J, Muller LI, Pepin KM. (2025). Evaluation of SARS-CoV-2 antibody detection methods for wild Cervidae. Preventive veterinary medicine, (241)
Michalska-Smith M, Craft ME, Davis AJ, Gilbert AT, Chipman RB, Kirby J, Nelson KM, Ma X, Wallace R, Miller G, Pepin KM. (2025). Landscape-scale analysis of raccoon rabies surveillance reveals different drivers of disease dynamics across latitude. PLoS neglected tropical diseases, 19(9)
VanAcker MC, Ergunay K, Webala PW, Kamau M, Mutura J, Lebunge R, Ochola GO, Bourke BP, McDermott EG, Achee NL, Jiang L, Grieco JP, Keter E, Musanga A, Murray S, Stabach JA, Craft ME, Fèvre EM, Linton YM, Hassell J. (2025). A Novel Nobecovirus in an Epomophorus wahlbergi Bat from Nairobi, Kenya. Viruses, 17(4)
Plimpton LD, VanAcker M, Kross S, Olarte-Castillo XA, Evans S, Konowal CR, Craft M, Goodman LB, Whittaker G, Needle D, Diuk-Wasser M. (2025). Trash Talking: Anthropogenic Resources Facilitate Raccoon Interactions in Urban Environments. Ecology and evolution, 15(12)
Pepin KM, Combs MA, Bastille-Rousseau G, Craft ME, Cross P, Diuk-Wasser MA, Gagne RB, Gallo T, Garwood T, Heale JD, Hewitt J, Høy-Petersen J, Malmberg J, Mullinax J, Plimpton L, Smith L, VanAcker MC, Chandler JC, Walter WD, Wilson-Henjum G, Wittemyer G, Manlove K. (2025). Expanding National-Scale Wildlife Disease Surveillance Systems With Research Networks. Ecology and evolution, 15(6)
Mistrick J, Veitch JSM, Kitchen SM, Clague S, Newman BC, Hall RJ, Budischak SA, Forbes KM, Craft ME. (2024). Effects of food supplementation and helminth removal on space use and spatial overlap in wild rodent populations. The Journal of animal ecology
Michalska-Smith M, Clements E, Rasmussen E, Culhane MR, Craft ME. (2024). Location, Age, and Antibodies Predict Avian Influenza Virus Shedding in Ring-Billed and Franklin's Gulls in Minnesota. Animals : an open access journal from MDPI, 14(19)
Walton D, Gilbertson M, Cunningham M, Onorato D, Ringer J, Craft M. (2024). Monitoring Seroprevalence of Infectious Diseases in the Florida Panther (Puma concolor coryi). Journal of wildlife diseases
Kinsley AC, Kao SZ, Enns EA, Escobar LE, Qiao H, Snellgrove N, Muellner U, Muellner P, Muthukrishnan R, Craft ME, Larkin DJ, Phelps NBD. (2024). Modeling the risk of aquatic species invasion spread through boater movements and river connections. Conservation biology : the journal of the Society for Conservation Biology
Pandey A, Wojan C, Feuka A, Craft ME, Manlove K, Pepin KM. (2024). The influence of social and spatial processes on the epidemiology of environmentally transmitted pathogens in wildlife: implications for management. Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, 379(1912)
Mistrick J, Kipp EJ, Weinberg SI, Adams CC, Larsen PA, Craft ME. (2024). Microbiome diversity and zoonotic bacterial pathogen prevalence in Peromyscus mice from agricultural landscapes and synanthropic habitat. Molecular ecology
Fountain-Jones NM, Silk M, Appaw RC, Hamede R, Rushmore J, VanderWaal K, Craft ME, Carver S, Charleston M. (2023). The spectral underpinnings of pathogen spread on animal networks. Proceedings. Biological sciences, 290(2007)
Shaw AK, Torstenson M, Craft ME, Binning SA. (2023). Gaps in modelling animal migration with evolutionary game theory: infection can favour the loss of migration. Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, 378(1876)
Gilbertson MLJ, Hart SN, VanderWaal K, Onorato D, Cunningham M, VandeWoude S, Craft ME. (2023). Seasonal changes in network connectivity and consequences for pathogen transmission in a solitary carnivore. Scientific reports, 13(1)
Michalska-Smith M, Enns EA, White LA, Gilbertson MLJ, Craft ME. (2023). The illusion of personal health decisions for infectious disease management: disease spread in social contact networks. Royal Society open science, 10(3)
Binning SA, Craft ME, Zuk M, Shaw AK. (2022). How to study parasites and host migration: a roadmap for empiricists. Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society
Fountain-Jones NM, Kraberger S, Gagne RB, Gilbertson MLJ, Trumbo DR, Charleston M, Salerno PE, Chris Funk W, Crooks K, Logan K, Alldredge M, Dellicour S, Baele G, Didelot X, VandeWoude S, Carver S, Craft ME. (2022). Hunting alters viral transmission and evolution in a large carnivore. Nature ecology & evolution, 6(2)
Makau DN, Lycett S, Michalska-Smith M, Paploski IAD, Cheeran MC, Craft ME, Kao RR, Schroeder DC, Doeschl-Wilson A, VanderWaal K. (2022). Ecological and evolutionary dynamics of multi-strain RNA viruses. Nature ecology & evolution
Kozakiewicz CP, Burridge CP, Lee JS, Kraberger SJ, Fountain-Jones NM, Fisher RN, Lyren LM, Jennings MK, Riley SPD, Serieys LEK, Craft ME, Funk WC, Crooks KR, VandeWoude S, Carver S. (2022). Habitat connectivity and host relatedness influence virus spread across an urbanising landscape in a fragmentation-sensitive carnivore. Virus evolution, 9(1)
Gilbertson MLJ, Fountain-Jones NM, Malmberg JL, Gagne RB, Lee JS, Kraberger S, Kechejian S, Petch R, Chiu ES, Onorato D, Cunningham MW, Crooks KR, Funk WC, Carver S, VandeWoude S, VanderWaal K, Craft ME. (2022). Apathogenic proxies for transmission dynamics of a fatal virus. Frontiers in veterinary science, (9)
Michalska-Smith M, VanderWaal K, Craft ME. (2022). Asymmetric host movement reshapes local disease dynamics in metapopulations. Scientific reports, 12(1)
Manlove K, Wilber M, White L, Bastille-Rousseau G, Yang A, Gilbertson MLJ, Craft ME, Cross PC, Wittemyer G, Pepin KM. (2022). Defining an epidemiological landscape that connects movement ecology to pathogen transmission and pace-of-life. Ecology letters
Hundt PJ, White LA, Craft ME, Bajer PG. (2022). Social associations in common carp (Cyprinus carpio): Insights from induced feeding aggregations for targeted management strategies. Ecology and evolution, 12(3)
Gilbertson MLJ, Onorato D, Cunningham M, VandeWoude S, Craft ME. (2022). Paradoxes and synergies: optimizing management of a deadly virus in an endangered carnivore. The Journal of applied ecology, 59(6)
Shaw AK, White LA, Michalska-Smith M, Borer ET, Craft ME, Seabloom EW, Snell-Rood EC, Travisano M. (2021). Lessons from movement ecology for the return to work: Modeling contacts and the spread of COVID-19. PloS one, 16(1)
Gagne RB, Crooks K, Craft ME, Chiu ES, Fountain-Jones NM, Malmberg JL, Carver S, Funk WC, VandeWoude S. (2021). Parasites as conservation tools. Conservation biology : the journal of the Society for Conservation Biology
Brandell EE, Cross PC, Craft ME, Smith DW, Dubovi EJ, Gilbertson MLJ, Wheeldon T, Stephenson JA, Barber-Meyer S, Borg BL, Sorum M, Stahler DR, Kelly A, Anderson M, Cluff HD, MacNulty DR, Watts DE, Roffler GH, Schwantje H, Hebblewhite M, Beckmen K, Fenton H, Hudson PJ. (2021). Author Correction: Patterns and processes of pathogen exposure in gray wolves across North America. Scientific reports, 11(1)
Worsley-Tonks KEL, Gehrt SD, Miller EA, Singer RS, Bender JB, Forester JD, McKenzie SC, Travis DA, Johnson TJ, Craft ME. (2021). between urban raccoons and domestic dogs. Applied and environmental microbiology
Brandell EE, Cross PC, Craft ME, Smith DW, Dubovi EJ, Gilbertson MLJ, Wheeldon T, Stephenson JA, Barber-Meyer S, Borg BL, Sorum M, Stahler DR, Kelly A, Anderson M, Cluff HD, MacNulty DR, Watts DE, Roffler GH, Schwantje H, Hebblewhite M, Beckmen K, Hudson PJ. (2021). Patterns and processes of pathogen exposure in gray wolves across North America. Scientific reports, 11(1)
Worsley-Tonks KEL, Gehrt SD, Anchor C, Escobar LE, Craft ME. (2021). Infection risk varies within urbanized landscapes: the case of coyotes and heartworm. Parasites & vectors, 14(1)
Fountain-Jones NM, Kraberger S, Gagne RB, Trumbo DR, Salerno PE, Chris Funk W, Crooks K, Biek R, Alldredge M, Logan K, Baele G, Dellicour S, Ernest HB, VandeWoude S, Carver S, Craft ME. (2021). Host relatedness and landscape connectivity shape pathogen spread in the puma, a large secretive carnivore. Communications biology, 4(1)
Gilbertson MLJ, White LA, Craft ME. (2021). Trade-offs with telemetry-derived contact networks for infectious disease studies in wildlife. Methods in ecology and evolution, 12(1)
Worsley-Tonks KEL, Miller EA, Anchor CL, Bender JB, Gehrt SD, McKenzie SC, Singer RS, Johnson TJ, Craft ME. (2021). Importance of anthropogenic sources at shaping the antimicrobial resistance profile of a peri-urban mesocarnivore. The Science of the total environment, (764)
Kozakiewicz CP, Burridge CP, Funk WC, Craft ME, Crooks KR, Fisher RN, Fountain-Jones NM, Jennings MK, Kraberger SJ, Lee JS, Lyren LM, Riley SPD, Serieys LEK, VandeWoude S, Carver S. (2020). Does the virus cross the road? Viral phylogeographic patterns among bobcat populations reflect a history of urban development. Evolutionary applications, 13(8)
White LA, VandeWoude S, Craft ME. (2020). A mechanistic, stigmergy model of territory formation in solitary animals: Territorial behavior can dampen disease prevalence but increase persistence. PLoS computational biology, 16(6)
Balstad LJ, Binning SA, Craft ME, Zuk M, Shaw AK. (2020). Parasite intensity and the evolution of migratory behavior. Ecology
Hawley DM, Gibson AK, Townsend AK, Craft ME, Stephenson JF. (2020). Bidirectional interactions between host social behaviour and parasites arise through ecological and evolutionary processes. Parasitology
Weckworth JK, Davis BW, Dubovi E, Fountain-Jones N, Packer C, Cleaveland S, Craft ME, Eblate E, Schwartz M, Mills LS, Roelke-Parker M. (2020). Cross-species transmission and evolutionary dynamics of canine distemper virus during a spillover in African lions of Serengeti National Park. Molecular ecology, 29(22)
Driciru M, Rwego IB, Ndimuligo SA, Travis DA, Mwakapeje ER, Craft M, Asiimwe B, Alvarez J, Ayebare S, Pelican K. (2020). Environmental determinants influencing anthrax distribution in Queen Elizabeth Protected Area, Western Uganda. PloS one, 15(8)
Brandell EE, Fountain-Jones NM, Gilbertson MLJ, Cross PC, Hudson PJ, Smith DW, Stahler DR, Packer C, Craft ME. (2020). Group density, disease, and season shape territory size and overlap of social carnivores. The Journal of animal ecology
White LA, Siva-Jothy JA, Craft ME, Vale PF. (2020). Genotype and sex-based host variation in behaviour and susceptibility drives population disease dynamics. Proceedings. Biological sciences, 287(1938)
Worsley-Tonks KEL, Miller EA, Gehrt SD, McKenzie SC, Travis DA, Johnson TJ, Craft ME. (2020). Characterization of antimicrobial resistance genes in Enterobacteriaceae carried by suburban mesocarnivores and locally owned and stray dogs. Zoonoses and public health, 67(4)
Worsley-Tonks KEL, Escobar LE, Biek R, Castaneda-Guzman M, Craft ME, Streicker DG, White LA, Fountain-Jones NM. (2020). Using host traits to predict reservoir host species of rabies virus. PLoS neglected tropical diseases, 14(12)
Kraberger S, Fountain-Jones NM, Gagne RB, Malmberg J, Dannemiller NG, Logan K, Alldredge M, Varsani A, Crooks KR, Craft M, Carver S, VandeWoude S. (2019). Frequent cross-species transmissions of foamy virus between domestic and wild felids. Virus evolution, 6(1)
Fountain-Jones NM, Clark NJ, Kinsley AC, Carstensen M, Forester J, Johnson TJ, Miller EA, Moore S, Wolf TM, Craft ME. (2020). Microbial associations and spatial proximity predict North American moose (Alces alces) gastrointestinal community composition. The Journal of animal ecology, 89(3)
Behdenna A, Lembo T, Calatayud O, Cleaveland S, Halliday JEB, Packer C, Lankester F, Hampson K, Craft ME, Czupryna A, Dobson AP, Dubovi EJ, Ernest E, Fyumagwa R, Hopcraft JGC, Mentzel C, Mzimbiri I, Sutton D, Willett B, Haydon DT, Viana M. (2019). Transmission ecology of canine parvovirus in a multi-host, multi-pathogen system. Proceedings. Biological sciences, 286(1899)
Fountain-Jones NM, Machado G, Carver S, Packer C, Recamonde-Mendoza M, Craft ME. (2019). How to make more from exposure data? An integrated machine learning pipeline to predict pathogen exposure. The Journal of animal ecology, 88(10)
Shaw AK, Craft ME, Zuk M, Binning SA. (2019). Host migration strategy is shaped by forms of parasite transmission and infection cost. The Journal of animal ecology, 88(10)
Fountain-Jones NM, Packer C, Jacquot M, Blanchet FG, Terio K, Craft ME. (2019). Endemic infection can shape exposure to novel pathogens: Pathogen co-occurrence networks in the Serengeti lions. Ecology letters, 22(6)
Trumbo DR, Salerno PE, Logan KA, Alldredge MW, Gagne RB, Kozakiewicz CP, Kraberger S, Fountain-Jones NM, Craft ME, Carver S, Ernest HB, Crooks KR, VandeWoude S, Funk WC. (2019). Urbanization impacts apex predator gene flow but not genetic diversity across an urban-rural divide. Molecular ecology, 28(22)
Reynolds JJH, Carver S, Cunningham MW, Logan KA, Vickers W, Crooks KR, VandeWoude S, Craft ME. (2019). Feline immunodeficiency virus in puma: Estimation of force of infection reveals insights into transmission. Ecology and evolution, 9(19)
Kao SZ, VanderWaal K, Enns EA, Craft ME, Alvarez J, Picasso C, Wells SJ. (2018). Modeling cost-effectiveness of risk-based bovine tuberculosis surveillance in Minnesota. Preventive veterinary medicine, (159)
White LA, Forester JD, Craft ME. (2018). Dynamic, spatial models of parasite transmission in wildlife: Their structure, applications and remaining challenges. The Journal of animal ecology, 87(3)
VanderWaal K, Enns EA, Picasso C, Alvarez J, Perez A, Fernandez F, Gil A, Craft M, Wells S. (2017). Optimal surveillance strategies for bovine tuberculosis in a low-prevalence country. Scientific reports, 7(1)
Manlove KR, Walker JG, Craft ME, Huyvaert KP, Joseph MB, Miller RS, Nol P, Patyk KA, O'Brien D, Walsh DP, Cross PC. (2016). "One Health" or Three? Publication Silos Among the One Health Disciplines. PLoS biology, 14(4)
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