Fig 2. Transferable vaccine model diagram.

Graphical representation of the general framework for the transferable vaccine model. The model consists of Susceptible individuals (S), Pathogen-infected individuals (P), and Recovered individuals (R). In addition, we track individuals that have gel on them, that is, Pathogen-infected individuals with gel (P_g) and Recovered individuals with gel (R_g). There is no Susceptible class with gel because we assume animals to which gel is applied are also directly vaccinated and thus move directly to the recovered and gelled class (rightmost arrow). Individuals are born into the Susceptible class at a seasonally variable rate b(t) (Eq 1) and all individuals leave the system through disease-independent mortality (d) and infected individuals may experience additional disease-dependent mortality at rate (ν). Other important parameters are the transmission rate of the pathogen (β_P), recovery from the pathogen (γ_P), direct-vaccination $\sigma \left(t\right)\frac{S}{S+P+R}$ (Eq 2), transmission of the vaccine-laced gel (β_g), deterioration of gel (γ_g), and removal of gel via grooming behaviors (α). Further details of the model can be found in the main text and the full system of equations can be found in the S1 Appendix. These figures were created with BioRender.com.