Abdul-Aziz Yakubu, Howard University

Abstract

Infectious salmon anemia (ISA) is a major threat to the viability of salmon populations, source of Omega-3 fatty acids, minerals and vitamins. ISA has caused high death rates in Atlantic salmon under marine farmed conditions. In this talk, we will introduce a discrete-time viral dispersal-linked farmed and wild salmon ISA disease model. Our ISA model includes salmon's pattern of cyclic dominance of subpopulations. We will compute the basic reproduction number, R₀, and use it to explore the effects of viral dispersion on ISA invasion or eradication. In the absence of wild salmon, we will use simulations to show that higher proportion of viral dispersion from ISA infected farmed cages to the nearby body of water is capable of stabilizing cyclic enzootic ISA disease dynamics via period-doubling bifurcation reversal. In the event of an ISA outbreak in a farmed salmon population, we will illustrate that higher proportion of ISA viral dispersion from the infected farm could put the nearby wild salmon population at risk of the ISA disease.

Speaker Bio: Abdul-Aziz Yakubu is Professor of Mathematics at Howard University. His research interests lie in mathematical biology and dynamical systems and encompass theoretical investigations of nonlinear systems that arise in the diverse fields of ecology, population dynamics, epidemiology and demography. Yakubu has co-organized workshops held in association with the DIMACS Initiatives in Africa, was an organizer of the 2015 DIMACS Mathematics of Planet Earth workshop on Management of Natural Resources, and has been a leader in CCICADA, the homeland security center based at DIMACS. He led a team of student researchers visiting DIMACS for a summer, and he serves on CCICADA’s Executive Committee.

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