Dynamics of a Food Chain Model with Two Infected Predators

Abstract

In this paper, the dynamics of a three-species food chain model with two predators infected by an infectious disease is investigated. The positivity and boundedness of the system, the existence of the equilibria and the basic reproductive number are given. Sufficient conditions for the local stability of all equilibria are obtained by analyzing the corresponding characteristic equations. By constructing suitable Lyapunov functions and taking the geometric approach, the global stability of all equilibria is proved. According to the center manifold theory, this model undergoes the phenomenon of backward and forward bifurcations in a certain range of the basic reproductive number [Formula: see text]. By taking the disease transmission coefficient of predator as bifurcation parameter, Hopf bifurcation emerges in the neighborhood of the endemic equilibrium. Furthermore, the optimal control of the disease is discussed by the Pontryagin’s maximum principle. Various simulations are given to support the analytical results.