MODELING PORCINE REPRODUCTIVE AND RESPIRATORY SYNDROME INCORPORATING DECAYING INFECTIOUSNESS AND DELAYED INFECTION INCIDENCES

Abstract

There are many epidemic diseases in the swine population such as swine fever disease, foot and mouth disease and Aujesky’s disease. One of the most important diseases in the swine industry is porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS). Mathematical models of the disease are needed to study its behavior and discover effective and control strategies. Various research works on this subject have not been able find out how to control the disease effectively. In this work, we study a mathematical model of PRRS infection with a time-delay in the infection process, incorporating infectiousness decay. We carry out a stability analysis to discover the effect of time delay on the dynamic behavior of the model. Our work is expected to form a basis for further investigation, building upon our basic model, to test the potential effectiveness of employing various intervention strategies for disease containment, such as vaccination and isolation.