Abstract
Although there is growing evidence that males tend to suffer higher levels of parasitism than females, the implications of this for the population dynamics of the host population are not yet understood. Here we build on an established ‘two-sex’ model and investigate how increased susceptibility to infection in males affects the dynamics, under different mating systems. We investigate the effect of pathogenic disease at different case mortalities, under both monogamous and polygynous mating systems. If the case mortality is low, then male-biased parasitism appears similar to unbiased parasitism in terms of its effect on the population dynamics. At higher case mortalities, we identified significant differences between male-biased and unbiased parasitism. A host population may therefore be differentially affected by male-biased and unbiased parasitism. The dynamical outcome is likely to depend on a complex interaction between the host's mating system and demography, and the parasite virulence.
Highlights
There is considerable evidence that the two sexes differ in their rates of parasitism
Parasitic infection may result in complicated dynamical behaviour [33]
In this study we have concentrated on the differences between male-biased and unbiased parasitism, in terms of the population’s dynamics
Summary
There is considerable evidence that the two sexes differ in their rates of parasitism. Males may be more susceptible to infection and/or they may transmit infection more than females. It has been pointed out, that in populations where males have higher levels of infection, they are likely to be responsible for most of the transmission to females [6]. One is that the larger body size and/or higher growth rates of males may make them easier targets for parasites [7]. Another is that males are more susceptible to parasitism due to the immunodepressive effects of the androgenic hormones (e.g. testosterone in vertebrates) required for increased growth and reproductive effort [7,8]. Since males tend to gain fitness largely through reproductive competition and females through enhanced longevity, it is predicted that males might invest less in costly immune mechanisms in order to divert resources into traits that enhance competitive ability [9,10]
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