Bacteriophage and bacteria in a flow reactor.

The Levin-Stewart model of bacteriophage predation of bacteria in a chemostat is modified for a flow reactor in which bacteria are motile, phage diffuse, and advection brings fresh nutrient and removes medium, cells and phage. A fixed latent period for phage results in a system of delayed reaction-diffusion equations with non-local nonlinearities. Basic reproductive numbers are obtained for bacteria and for phage which predict survival of each in the bio-reactor. These are expressed in terms of physical and biological parameters. Persistence and extinction results are obtained for both bacteria and phage. Numerical simulations are in general agreement with those for the chemostat model.