Integral Projection Models for host-parasite systems with an application to amphibian chytrid fungus

Host–parasite models are typically constructed under either a microparasite or macroparasite paradigm. However, this has long been recognized as a false dichotomy because many infectious disease agents, including most fungal pathogens, have attributes of both microparasites and macroparasites.
We illustrate how Integral Projection Models (IPMs) provide a novel modelling framework to represent both types of pathogens. We build a simple host–parasite IPM that tracks both the number of susceptible and infected hosts and the distribution of parasite burdens in infected hosts.
The vital rate functions necessary to build IPMs for disease dynamics share many commonalities with classic micro and macroparasite models and we discuss how these functions can be parameterized to build a host–parasite IPM. We illustrate the utility of this IPM approach by modelling the temperature-dependent epizootic dynamics of amphibian chytrid fungus in Mountain yellow-legged frogs (Rana muscosa).
The host–parasite IPM can be applied to other diseases such as facial tumour disease in Tasmanian devils and white-nose syndrome in bats. Moreover, the host–parasite IPM can be easily extended to capture more complex disease dynamics and provides an exciting new frontier in modelling wildlife disease.