# Using travel information (country\_exposure)

**URL:** <https://nextstrain.discourse.group/t/using-travel-information-country-exposure/115>\
**Category:** Uncategorized\
**Created:** [September 2, 2020, 2:04am UTC](https://nextstrain.discourse.group/t/using-travel-information-country-exposure/115 "2020-09-02T02:04:34Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![andersonbrito](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/nextstrain.discourse.group/andersonbrito/32/72_2.png) [@andersonbrito](https://nextstrain.discourse.group/u/andersonbrito)\
**Post date:** [September 2, 2020, 2:04am UTC](https://nextstrain.discourse.group/t/using-travel-information-country-exposure/115/1 "2020-09-02T02:04:34Z")

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Hi all,

What is the best way to incorporate travel history in the discrete phylogeographic analysis?  
Is it just a matter of, for example, using the `country_exposure` column (and other `exposure` columns) as geographic information, or is there a specific command used for travel information to be taken into account?

Thank you,  
Anderson

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**Author:** ![emmahodcroft](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/nextstrain.discourse.group/emmahodcroft/32/14_2.png) [@emmahodcroft](https://nextstrain.discourse.group/u/emmahodcroft)\
**Post date:** [September 2, 2020, 9:56am UTC](https://nextstrain.discourse.group/t/using-travel-information-country-exposure/115/2 "2020-09-02T09:56:49Z")

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Hi Anderson!  
It would be good if some others from the team could chime in to ensure I’ve got this straight, but I believe that just using the `country_exposure` column and then passing this into `augur traits` should do the trick - this is what we do in our [Nextstrain.org](http://Nextstrain.org) `ncov` builds. We then do some fiddling afterwards to try and align this with the display… see `incorporate_travel_history` rule (and corresponding script) [here](https://github.com/nextstrain/ncov/blob/master/workflow/snakemake_rules/main_workflow.smk#L899). This is some adjustment so that the nodes show up the color of the place they were sampled, with the exposure location being a separate trait - but this isn’t necessary if you’re just interested in using the exposure information to infer traits on internal nodes and are less concerned for appearances!

I hope that helps!

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**Author:** ![andersonbrito](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/nextstrain.discourse.group/andersonbrito/32/72_2.png) [@andersonbrito](https://nextstrain.discourse.group/u/andersonbrito)\
**Post date:** [September 2, 2020, 6:26pm UTC](https://nextstrain.discourse.group/t/using-travel-information-country-exposure/115/3 "2020-09-02T18:26:50Z")

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Really helpful, @emmahodcroft. : )  
Thank you.