A study of chaos and its possible control in an eco-epidemiological model with alternative food source in predator and weak allee effect in prey species

Abstract

The paper investigates a predator-prey model with weak Allee in prey and disease in the predator population. We consider type II functional response and alternative food source in the predator population. The curiosity of
this paper is to consider different parameters such as a force of infection, alternative food, and Allee which leads to the emergent dynamics of the system. We have performed the local and global stability analysis and the Hopf bifurcation analysis around the biologically feasible equilibrium points. We have also discussed the permanence and impermanence of the system. Further, we take into account the chaotic dynamics which is produced by disease. It is observed from the numerical experiments that the proposed predator-prey system exhibits disease induced chaos which increases the force of infection, whereas, in the presence of alternative food and weak-Allee effect, it exhibits a stable solution. Hence this study shows that the Allee effect and alternative food source significantly plays a role in the control of chaos.