The potential role of pathogens in biological control.

Abstract

It is now well established that pathogens such as viruses, fungi bacteria and protozoans can have profound effects on the dynamics of their invertebrate host populations. Theoretical models of invertebrate host-pathogen interactions which assume uniform structure of the pathogen population may reasonably explain the oscillatory behaviour observed in some systems, but do not adequately describe the existence of more constant populations found in other host-pathogen interactions. An examination of the literature relating to these relatively stable systems suggests that the common thread is the eventual transmission of some of the more protected, longer-lived stages of the pathogen occurring in reservoirs, such as the soil, host cadavers on trees, or the live host itself. In this letter, I propose a new theoretical model which incorporates this population structure and accounts for the range of dynamics observed in natural systems. In particular, I show that host populations may be regulated to low and relatively constant densities if sufficient numbers of pathogens are trans-located from pathogen reservoirs to habitats where transmission can occur. An understanding of pathogen reservoirs may be of value in the design of biological control programmes and may greatly increase the effectiveness of pathogens as biological control agents.