Projected future distributions of vectors of Trypanosoma cruzi in North America under climate change scenarios
| Autor: | Sahotra Sarkar, Chissa Louise Rivaldi, Teresa Patricia Feria Arroyo, Edgar A. Casillas, Víctor Sánchez-Cordero, Miroslava Garza |
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| Rok vydání: | 2013 |
| Předmět: |
Chagas disease
Latin Americans lcsh:Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine lcsh:RC955-962 Biogeography Climate Change Climate change Global Health Models Biological Global Change Ecology medicine Medicine and Health Sciences Animals Chagas Disease Public and Occupational Health Triatoma Ecosystem biology Ecology lcsh:Public aspects of medicine Ecology and Environmental Sciences Public Health Environmental and Occupational Health Biology and Life Sciences lcsh:RA1-1270 medicine.disease biology.organism_classification 3. Good health Insect Vectors Infectious Diseases Reduviidae 13. Climate action Vector (epidemiology) North America Spatial ecology Research Article |
| Zdroj: | PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, Vol 8, Iss 5, p e2818 (2014) |
| ISSN: | 1935-2735 |
| Popis: | Background Chagas disease kills approximately 45 thousand people annually and affects 10 million people in Latin America and the southern United States. The parasite that causes the disease, Trypanosoma cruzi, can be transmitted by insects of the family Reduviidae, subfamily Triatominae. Any study that attempts to evaluate risk for Chagas disease must focus on the ecology and biogeography of these vectors. Expected distributional shifts of vector species due to climate change are likely to alter spatial patterns of risk of Chagas disease, presumably through northward expansion of high risk areas in North America. Methodology/Principal Findings We forecast the future (2050) distributions in North America of Triatoma gerstaeckeri and T. sanguisuga, two of the most common triatomine species and important vectors of Trypanosoma cruzi in the southern United States. Our aim was to analyze how climate change might affect the future shift of Chagas disease in North America using a maximum entropy algorithm to predict changes in suitable habitat based on vector occurrence points and predictive environmental variables. Projections based on three different general circulation models (CCCMA, CSIRO, and HADCM3) and two IPCC scenarios (A2 and B2) were analyzed. Twenty models were developed for each case and evaluated via cross-validation. The final model averages result from all twenty of these models. All models had AUC >0.90, which indicates that the models are robust. Our results predict a potential northern shift in the distribution of T. gerstaeckeri and a northern and southern distributional shift of T. sanguisuga from its current range due to climate change. Conclusions/Significance The results of this study provide baseline information for monitoring the northward shift of potential risk from Chagas disease in the face of climate change. Author Summary Chagas disease kills thousands of people annually. Triatomine insects (family Reduviidae, sub-family Triatominae), can be potential vectors of the parasite (Trypanosoma cruzi) that causes the disease. There are often no symptoms until cardiac and digestive system dysfunction (possibly including heart failure) after 10 to 30 years of infection. Climate change can shift the distribution of triatomine insects, favoring the spread of the disease to non-original areas. We used distributional information on the most commonly found triatomine species and the most important vectors of Trypanosoma cruzi in South Texas and North Mexico (T. gerstaeckeri and T. sanguisuga), and explanatory climatic variables to forecast the potential distribution of the insects in the year 2050. We used two different scenarios of climate change and three different general circulation models. Our results showed that the triatomine species studied will likely shift their distribution northwards in the future. There is thus a need to monitor areas that are not currently endemic for Chagas disease but may potentially be affected in the future due to climate change. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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