Brief summary of dataset contents, contextualized in experimental procedures and results: Population and infection data was collected following a standard capture mark recapture method on an open population of M. natalensis in Morogoro, Tanzania. A regular grid of 300 traps with traps placed every 10 metres was used. Animals were captured monthly between January 2010 and December 2012 for three consecutive nights with Sherman LFA live traps baited with a mixture of corn flour and peanut butter. Individuals were identified using toe clipping and the location of the trap of each animal was recorded. Blood was sampled to determine the serostate of individuals by using an immunofluorescence assay (IFA) following (Borremans et al. 2015). Description of the data variables: TOE: ID of individual identified by toe clipping. SESSID: Monthly capture session ID of three consecutive days. DATE: Date of capture moment. X: X direction of the trap (from 1 to 30). YN: Y direction of the trap (from 1 to 10). SEROSTATE: Serostatus of individual at capture moment (0 = negative, 1 = positive) GROUP.DISPERSAL: Grouping variable of individual dispersal (1 = <40 m and 2 = >40 m)

L. Kirkpatrick is supported by an FWO Junior Fellowship. Further support came from the FWO project G065720N and from the University of Antwerp Consortium of Excellence VAX-IDEA.