Data from: 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.