Fig 1.
PRISMA flow diagram of the study selection process.
Fig 2.
Trends in research publications over time.
(A) Number of studies published per year from 2006 to 2023. (B) Cumulative number of studies over the same period, showcasing the steady growth in the body of literature.
Fig 3.
Distribution of studies on livestock and poultry movement networks globally, up until 2023 (inclusive).
Circle sizes indicate the number of studies per country during this period. Countries with at least 5 studies are identified by their respective ISO 3166−1 alpha-3 codes (i.e., 3 letter country code). The figure is original, created by the authors the study’s data.
Table 1.
Distribution of studies by species group for the top 5 most represented countries. The table includes the number (n) and percentage (%) of total studies conducted within each country, up until 2023. In some cases, the sum of percentages does not equate to 100%, since some studies included multiple species.
Fig 4.
Distribution of studies by species group over time from 2006 to 2023.
The “Other” species category includes less frequently investigated animals, namely buffalo, camelids, badgers, deer and ostriches, which were always explored alongside one of the other livestock or poultry groups.
Fig 5.
Representation of network attributes in livestock and poultry movement network studies.
The diagram illustrates the components of network analysis – node types (1), edge weights (2), and temporal scales (3) – while the accompanying table provides a detailed summary of their respective frequencies and characteristics across studies.
Table 2.
Reported strengths versus limitations in applying social network analysis to livestock and poultry movement networks.