Data for: Age structure eliminates the impact of coinfection on epidemic dynamics in a freshwater zooplankton system

Parasites often coinfect host populations, and, by interacting within
hosts, might change the trajectory of multi-parasite epidemics. However,
host-parasite interactions often change with host age, raising the
possibility that within-host interactions between parasites might also
change, influencing the spread of disease. We measured how heterospecific
parasites interacted within zooplankton hosts and how host age changed
these interactions. We then parameterized an epidemiological model to
explore how age-effects altered the impact of coinfection on epidemic
dynamics. In our model, we found that in populations where
epidemiologically relevant parameters did not change with age, the
presence of a second parasite altered epidemic dynamics. In contrast, when
parameters varied with host age (based on our empirical measures), there
was no longer a difference in epidemic dynamics between singly and
coinfected populations, indicating that variable age structure within a
population eliminates the impact of coinfection on epidemic dynamics.
Moreover, infection prevalence of both parasites was lower in populations
where epidemiologically relevant parameters changed with age. Given that
host-population age structure changes over time and space, these results
indicate that age-effects are important for understanding epidemiological
processes in coinfected systems and that studies focused on a single age
group could yield inaccurate insights.