The role of viral infection in pest control: a mathematical study

In this paper, we propose a mathematical model of viral infection in pest control. As the viral infection induces host lysis which releases more virus into the environment, on the average 'kappa' viruses per host, kappa e (1,infinity), so the 'virus replication parameter' is chosen as the main parameter on which the dynamics of the infection depends. There exists a threshold value kappa 0 beyond which the infection persists in the system. Still for increasing the value of kappa, the endemic equilibrium bifurcates towards a periodic solution, which essentially indicates that the viral pesticide has a density-dependent 'numerical response' component to its action. Investigation also includes the dependence of the process on predation of natural enemy into the system. A concluding discussion with numerical simulation of the model is also presented.