Additional file 2: of Impact of life stage-dependent dispersal on the colonization dynamics of host patches by ticks and tick-borne infectious agents

To fully understand the consequences of the soft tick polyphasic cycle on vector-infection spread, we investigated the impact of an increase in the parameter feeding rate, c. This contact rate is only increased for nymphal and adult stages, as soft ticks take multiple short bloodmeals during those stages, while they only feed once during the larval stage, therefore c is kept equal to 1 at the larval stage. A slight increase in feeding rate leads to a rapid rise in the infection prevalence in soft tick systems, but as the soft ticks nidicolous lifestyle means that they probably feed on the same host or its offspring, soft tick multiple bloodmeal per life stage would certainly not increase vector-borne infection prevalence to the extent induced by direct changes of c. Figure S2. Vector-borne infection prevalence for different contact rates (i.e. tick feeding rate). Hard tick feed only once a year (c = 1 at all times), while soft can feed multiple times during nymphal and adult stages (c > 1 for nymphs and adults, c = 1 for larvae), which could potentially increase the opportunity for transmission, if they are to feed on different hosts. Default parameters are found in Table 1, θ = 0.001. Table S1. Parameters used for sensitivity analysis. (ZIP 217 kb)