Preliminary analysis of an agent-based model for a tick-borne disease

Holly Gaff

doi:10.3934/mbe.2011.8.463

Article Contents

2011, Volume 8, Issue 2: 463-473. Doi: 10.3934/mbe.2011.8.463

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Preliminary analysis of an agent-based model for a tick-borne disease

Holly Gaff^1,

1.
Department of Biological Sciences, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA 23529

Received: February 28, 2010

Revised: August 31, 2010

Published: March 2011

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Abstract

Ticks have a unique life history including a distinct set of life stages and a single blood meal per life stage. This makes tick-host interactions more complex from a mathematical perspective. In addition, any model of these interactions must involve a significant degree of stochasticity on the individual tick level. In an attempt to quantify these relationships, I have developed an individual-based model of the interactions between ticks and their hosts as well as the transmission of tick-borne disease between the two populations. The results from this model are compared with those from previously published differential equation based population models. The findings show that the agent-based model produces significantly lower prevalence of disease in both the ticks and their hosts than what is predicted by a similar differential equation model.

Keywords:

Agent-based model,
tick-borne disease.

Mathematics Subject Classification: Primary: 92B08; Secondary: 90B15.

Citation:

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