An Embedded Multiscale Modelling to Guide Control and Elimination of Paratuberculosis in Ruminants

Abstract

In recent years, multiscale modelling approach has begun to receive an overwhelming appreciation as an appropriate technique to characterize the complexity of infectious disease systems. In this study, we develop an embedded multiscale model of paratuberculosis in ruminants at host level that integrates the within-host scale and the between-host. A key feature of embedded multiscale models developed at host level of organization of an infectious disease system is that the within-host scale and the between-host scale influence each other in a reciprocal (i.e., both) way through superinfection, that is, through repeated infection before the host recovers from the initial infectious episode. This key feature is demonstrated in this study through a multiscale model of paratuberculosis in ruminants. The results of this study, through numerical analysis of the multiscale model, show that superinfection influences the dynamics of paratuberculosis only at the start of the infection, while the MAP bacteria replication continuously influences paratuberculosis dynamics throughout the infection until the host recovers from the initial infectious episode. This is largely because the replication of MAP bacteria at the within-host scale sustains the dynamics of paratuberculosis at this scale domain. We further use the embedded multiscale model developed in this study to evaluate the comparative effectiveness of paratuberculosis health interventions that influence the disease dynamics at different scales from efficacy data.