Using Cellular Automata to study the effect of competition for epidemic diseases

Cellular Automata (CA) has shown to be a valuable approach in ecological modeling, in particular when dealing with local interactions between species and their environment. A stochastic cellular automata model, which included two competitors (the inferior species which is immune to a disease and the superior one which is sensitive to the disease), is constructed. Through time series analysis and spatial pattern analysis, the influence of competition effect upon the behavior of epidemic diseases has been investigated to know whether the competition effect is in favor of epidemics control. Then, some strategies for introducing competitors to the infectious system are explored. The result shows that introducing some right competitors into the infection region may be a considerable policy. The population with high colonization rate, low extinction rate and long colonization radius is introduced preferably. The result may give us some suggestions for epidemic control in conservation of wild populations.