Environmental Determinants of the Distribution of Chagas Disease Vector Triatoma dimidiata in Colombia

Abstract

Abstract. Triatoma dimidiata (Hemiptera: Reduviidae) is a secondary vector of Trypanosoma cruzi in Colombia and represents an important epidemiological risk mainly in the central and oriental regions of the country where it occupies sylvatic, peridomestic, and intradomestic ecotopes, and because of this complex distribution, its distribution and abundance could be conditioned by environmental factors. In this work, we explored the relationship between T. dimidiata distribution and environmental factors in the northwest, northeast, and central zones of Colombia and developed predictive models of infestation in the country. The associations between the presence of T. dimidiata and environmental variables were studied using logistic regression models and ecological niche modeling for a sample of villages in Colombia. The analysis was based on the information collected in field about the presence of T. dimidiata and the environmental data for each village extracted from remote sensing images. The presence of Triatoma dimidiata (Latreille, 1811) was found to be significantly associated with the maximum vegetation index, minimum land surface temperature (LST), and the digital elevation for the statistical model. Temperature seasonality, annual precipitation, and vegetation index were the variables that most influenced the ecological niche model of T. dimidiata distribution. The logistic regression model showed a good fit and predicted suitable habitats in the Andean and Caribbean regions, which agrees with the known distribution of the species, but predicted suitable habitats in the Pacific and Orinoco regions proposing new areas of research. Improved models to predict suitable habitats for T. dimidiata hold promise for spatial targeting of integrated vector management.

Pattern of climate connectivity and equivalent niche of Triatominae species of the Phyllosoma complex

“…It has been documented that at the global scale (in the Americas), its distribution is influenced by the Bio03 and Bio06 (de la Vega & Schilman, 2018). Still, at a regional scale, the species presents climatic similarities with the Phyllosoma complex, because its distribution is also mainly determined by the Bio04 in Colombia (Parra-Henao et al, 2016) and México (Carmona-Castro et al, 2018) or is strongly associated with temperature and precipitation (Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico in Dumonteil et al, 2002;Dumonteil & Gourbière, 2004). Interestingly, the similarity or niche conservatism among the Phyllosoma complex and T. dimidiata lineages has never been evaluated.…”

Influence of human population density on spatial distribution patterns of environmental suitability for triatomine vectors of Chagas disease

“…infestans and R. prolixus), bringing insights into the distribution of the triatomine group as a whole. Specific studies were carried out for Venezuela [19,53], Argentina [53], Colombia [21,23] and Ecuador [54]. For Brazil, in particular, [10] analyzed the distribution of eight species in the center-west region and [55] analyzed the distribution of the species complex T. brasiliensis, which occurs mainly in the Brazilian northeast.…”

“…Previous studies has shown that triatomines can have different levels of adaptation to anthropogenic environments [13,22]. They are organisms that can move around actively looking for microenvironments that meet their ecological demands and, thus, the species can infest best suited household and peridomestic areas [22,23]. These different levels of successful colonization of anthropic environments can be interpreted as different levels of ecological interaction between different species of triatomine vectors and the human species.…”

Fauna asociada a la palma de vino Attalea butyracea (Mutis ex L.f.) Wess.Boer (1988) (Arecales: Arecaceae) en un agroecosistema de Galeras, Sucre, Colombia

“…La fauna de triatominos ha sido ampliamente estudiada debido a su importancia epidemiológica (Salazar y Calle, 2003;Guhl et al, 2007); en Colombia varias investigaciones han tratado el tema de la caracterización ecoepidemiológica de algunas especies de triatominos asociados a palmas (Salazar y Calle, 2003;Guhl et al, 2007;Parra-Henao et al, 2016). Los resultados presentes, con respecto a triatominos en la palma de vino, se relacionan con las publicaciones acerca del tema; las dos especies encontradas en esta investigación también han sido encon-tradas en A. butyracea y otras palmas en dife-rentes regiones del país.…”