Effect of density dependence on coinfection dynamics

TL;DR

This paper develops a bifurcation-based SIR model for coinfection, analyzing how population density and carrying capacity influence disease dynamics, including complex behaviors like chaos.

Contribution

It introduces a generalized SIR coinfection model incorporating density dependence and bifurcation analysis, extending previous Lotka-Volterra models.

Findings

Pathogen invasion depends on carrying capacity K.

Density dependence can lead to complex dynamics, including chaos.

Invasion success varies with population density and K.

Abstract

In this paper we develop an SIR model for coinfection. We discuss how the underlying dynamics depends on the carrying capacity $K$: from a simple dynamics to a more complicated. This can help in understanding of appearance of more complicated dynamics, for example, chaos etc. The density dependent population growth is also considered. It is presented that pathogens can invade in population and their invasion depends on the carrying capacity $K$ which shows that the progression of disease in population depends on carrying capacity. Our approach is based on a bifurcation analysis which allows to generalize considerably the previous Lotka-Volterra type models.