The goal of this article is to provide an useful criterion of positivity and well-posedness for a wide range of infinite dimensional semilinear abstract Cauchy problems. This criterion is based on some weak assumptions on the non-linear part of the semilinear problem and on the existence of a strongly continuous semigroup generated by the differential operator. To illustrate a large variety of applications, we exhibit the feasibility of this criterion through three examples in mathematical biology: epidemiology, predator-prey interactions and oncology.