Mathematical modeling of the sterilization effects in dog population control

• Grant number: 11/14171-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: November 01, 2011
• End date: September 30, 2012
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Collective Health - Public Health
• Principal Investigator: Marcos Amaku
• Grantee: Lilian Akemi Taba Akamine
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia (FMVZ). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

In many countries, the increasing number of abandoned dogs is a major public health problem. The implementation of strategies to control the population growth could minimize the problems resulting from the dog abandonment such as aggression to human beings by bites and zoonotic transmission. Mathematical models can provide information that helps to estimate the effects of control population, such as sterilization and euthanasia. Using mathematical modeling, this scientific initiation project aims to study the potential effects of dog population control campaigns (through sterilization and euthanasia), considering the population splitted into males and females (two-sex model). As far as we know, this is an original proposition for this problem because the existing models consider the control effect based on the female population while this approach is based on differential equations. This Project, as scientific initiation, will offer to the student an opportunity to study and develop mathematical models in population dynamics.(AU)