Publication details
Sterilization does not always harm: reproduction-survival trade-off and dynamics of infectious diseases.
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| Year of publication | 2016 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | Invasions of alien species may dangerously impact both native and agricultural communities. Since pests are increasingly becoming resistant to chemical pesticides, it is preferable to use an alternative approach to their control. The ability of pathogens to regulate dynamics of their host populations has been clearly demonstrated, and development of mathematical models that assess the degree of this regulation and a plausibility of pathogens to be used as pest control agents has become a routine issue in theoretical ecology. Nevertheless, until recently, these models have not included the fact that a reduced fecundity or even sterility of the infected individuals may reduce energy costs on reproduction and thus the affected individuals might live longer than the unaffected ones. We develop a mathematical model of an infectious disease that builds on this idea. Contrary to a previous model in which the pathogen had either no effect or caused complete sterility, we examine a pathogen that causes a partial fecundity reduction. We analyze the model for several different infection transmission functions and discuss the use of such sterilizing pathogens for alien population control. In particular, we show that the model is able to generate bistable dynamics and that the endemic equilibrium of the infected population can be larger than the disease-free equilibrium. |
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