Anthrax epizootic and migration: persistence or extinction.

In this paper, we use an extension of the deterministic mathematical model of an anthrax epizootic of Hahn and Furniss to study the effects of anthrax transmission, carcass ingestion, carcass induced environmental contamination, and migration rates on the persistence or extinction of animal populations. We compute the basic reproduction number R(0) for the anthrax epizootic model with and without taking into account animal migration. We obtained conditions for an anthrax enzootic region. We demonstrate that decreasing the levels of carcass ingestion by removal of carcases in game reserves, for example, may not always lead to a reduction in the population of animals infected with anthrax. However, increasing levels of carcass induced environmental contamination rates in an enzootic anthrax region can result in the catastrophic extinction of a persistent animal population.