ASSOC. PROF. DR. FARAIMUNASHE CHIROVE

Faraimunashe Chirove is an Associate Professor of Applied Mathematics in the Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics at the University of Johannesburg. He is a NRF C2 rated (South Africa) scientist and, holder of a Bachelor of Science Honors in Mathematics (2003) and Master of Science in Mathematics (2005) from University of Zimbabwe and a PhD (2011) in Mathematics (Mathematical Biology) from University of Botswana.  He is currently employed as an Associate Professor at University of Johannesburg.  He is an NRF C2 rated researcher in the field of Applied mathematics and Biomathematics with a research goal: “from omics to population dynamics”, a goal which seeks to explore, analyze, and understand the prognosis of infection across the various scales of occurrence and how the occurrence of infection at one scale can affect the infection dynamics at other scales. Currently, he is largely doing most of his research at cellular level and population dynamics predicting the impact of the cellular infection on the population dynamics and vice versa on human infectious diseases. He has so far published over 34 publications in accredited journals through collaborations with researchers all over the world. His research interests have expanded into mathematical ecology, data-based modelling, agent-based modelling, applications into zoonotic diseases, stochastic modelling, multi-scale modelling, antimicrobial resistance in agricultural settings and, systems mathematical biology. He is also focusing on multi-and interdisciplinary research as to make his modelling skills manifest into realistic impact on public health and animal health policies. He has supervised and graduated 12 PhD, 14 MSc and 11 Honours students. He is currently serving as the vice president of the Southern Africa Mathematical Sciences association (SAMSA) executive committee, an association in Southern Africa that has been in existence since 1981. He previously served the same association as a committee member and executive treasurer from 2014 to 2022. He holds membership with other mathematical associations such as South Africa Mathematical society (SAMS) and SIAM. 

EXPLORING THE IMPACT OF MIGRATION AND SPATIAL HETEROGENEITY ON THE DYNAMICS OF A TICK-BORNE DISEASE

Spatial heterogeneity and migration of hosts and ticks have an impact on the spread, extinction, and persistence of tick-borne diseases. In this talk, we investigate the impact of spatial heterogeneity and between-patch migration of white-tailed deer and lone star ticks on the dynamics of a tick-borne disease using a system of Ito stochastic differential equations. Results are illustrated for a two-patch deterministic and stochastic models. The results suggest that the probability of disease extinction can be increased if deer and tick movement are controlled or prohibited especially when there is an outbreak in one or both patches. Screening of infectives in protected areas such as deer farms, private game parks or reserves, etc. before they migrate to other areas can be one of the intervention strategies for controlling and preventing disease spread in a Multipatch environment.