Global analysis of a multi-group animal epidemic model with indirect infection and time delay

The transmission mechanism of some animal diseases is complex because of the multiple transmission pathways and multiple-group interactions, which lead to the limited understanding of the dynamics of these diseases transmission. In this paper, a delay multi-group dynamic model is proposed in which time delay is caused by the latency of infection. Under the biologically motivated assumptions, the basic reproduction number $R_0$ is derived and then the global stability of the disease-free equilibrium and the endemic equilibrium is analyzed by Lyapunov functionals and a graph-theoretic approach as for time delay. The results show the global properties of equilibria only depend on the basic reproductive number $R_0$: the disease-free equilibrium is globally asymptotically stable if $R_0\leq 1$; if $R_0>1$, the endemic equilibrium exists and is globally asymptotically stable, which implies time delay span has no effect on the stability of equilibria. Finally, some specific examples are taken to illustrate the utilization of the results and then numerical simulations are used for further discussion. The numerical results show time delay model may experience periodic oscillation behaviors, implying that the spread of animal diseases depends largely on the prevention and control strategies of all sub-populations.