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Impulse Vaccination Model For The Control Of Devil Facial Tumor Disease, Zachary Bobbitt, Timothy Comar, Megan O. Powell, Catherine Roberts, Nicholas Schneider, Teagen Smith
Impulse Vaccination Model For The Control Of Devil Facial Tumor Disease, Zachary Bobbitt, Timothy Comar, Megan O. Powell, Catherine Roberts, Nicholas Schneider, Teagen Smith
Spora: A Journal of Biomathematics
Devil facial tumor disease (DFTD) is a cancer that affects Tasmanian devils and that has caused the devil population to grossly decline since 1996. We present an SEIVR model to explore if recent advances in DFTD vaccines can help the wild population recover. Considering both and bi-annual impulse of vaccinating wild devils through food drops and introducing vaccinated captive-bred devils into the population, we explore the vaccine efficacy, percent of healthy devils receiving the vaccine, and years of campaign necessary for the devil population to have a long-term recovery. Based on our initial parameter estimations, we find a stable population …