Thresholds for disease persistence in models for tick-borne infections including non-viraemic transmission, extended feeding and tick aggregation (Q2177366)

This paper studies thresholds for disease persistence is models for tick-borne infections. In the model, ticks are categorized as per their stage as larvae, nymphs and adults. Each larvae and nymphs stage requires a blood meal from a vertebrate host. The model has two classes of hosts: viraemic hosts and non-viraemic hosts. The work considers the possibility of non-viraemic transmission which is relevant to infections such as tick-borne encephalitis. The distribution of tick stages among hosts are studied. Both immature tick stages show highly aggregated distribution on their host and these aggregated distributions are coincident rather than independent. Basic reproduction numbers in several cases have been derived. Together with stability analysis of disease-free equilibrium with only viraemic transmission, stability of disease-free equilibrium with non-viraemic transmission has also been investigated. Some numerical results have been produced to illustrate the theoretical results.