Evolutionary Stability of Minimal Mutation Rates in an Evo-epidemiological Model

We consider the evolution of mutation rate in a seasonally forced, deterministic, compartmental epidemiological model with a transmission–virulence trade-off. We model virulence as a quantitative genetic trait in a haploid population and mutation as continuous diffusion in the trait space. There is a mutation rate threshold above which the pathogen cannot invade a wholly susceptible population. The evolutionarily stable (ESS) mutation rate is …