Metapopulation dynamics of an infectious disease

A phenomenological two host metapopulation model for an infectious disease is developed. We consider one main host and one secondary host. We are interested in the role of the secondary host when it can be regarded as a ‘sink' from the pathogens point of view. A host being a ‘sink' here means that the pathogen would go extinct if only that host species existed. The general dynamics of the system depend on the set of main type metapopulation functions for colonisation and extinction process (Allee, rescue, anti-rescue). Examples of real world two host metapopulations will be discussed, especially the Phocine distemper outbreaks in harbour and harp seals.