Mathematical modelling of the spread of Nipah virus in bats, humans and pigs

A mathematical model formulated using ordinary differential equations is proposed to study the dynamics of zoonotic Nipah virus in fruit bats (natural hosts of Nipah virus), pigs and humans. The presented model has one disease free equilibrium (DFE) and three endemic equilibria (EE). The next generation matrix method is employed to compute the basic reproduction number of the model R0. The calculations give three partial basic reproduction numbers, maximum of the three partial basic reproduction numbers is taken as the basic reproduction number of the model. The global stability of the DFE when R0≤ 1 is proved using a suitable Lyapunov function. The graph theoretic method is utilized to show the global stability of the three EE under certain conditions on the parameters that affect the basic reproduction numbers.