 Aggregation of macroparasite burdens

If host-specific equilibrium mean burden has a gamma distribution, conditional Poisson distributions produce a Poisson-gamma mixture, hence a negative binomial distribution. With mean $m$ and shape $k$, its zero-burden probability is $(1+m/k{)}^{-k}$. Decreasing $k$ increases aggregation: a smaller infected-host prevalence can accompany the same mean burden and more heavily infected individuals.