Background
Understanding the response of vector habitats to climate change is essential for vector management. Increasingly, there is fear that climate change may cause vectors to be more important for animal husbandry in the future. Therefore, knowledge about the current and future spatial distribution of vectors, including ticks (Ixodida), is progressively becoming more critical to animal disease control.
Methods
Our study produced present (2018) and future (2050) bont tick (Amblyomma hebraeum) niche models for Mashonaland Central Province, Zimbabwe. Specifically, our approach used the Ensemble algorithm in Biomod2 package in R 3.4.4 with a suite of physical and anthropogenic covariates against the tick’s presence-only location data obtained from cattle dipping facilities.
Results
Our models showed that currently (the year 2018) the bont tick potentially occurs in 17,008 km2, which is 60% of Mashonaland Central Province. However, the models showed that in the future (the year 2050), the bont tick will occur in 13,323 km2, which is 47% of Mashonaland Central Province. Thus, the models predicted an ~ 13% reduction in the potential habitat, about 3685 km2 of the study area. Temperature, elevation and rainfall were the most important variables explaining the present and future potential habitat of the bont tick.
Conclusion
Results of our study are essential in informing programmes that seek to control the bont tick in Mashonaland Central Province, Zimbabwe and similar environments.
Graphical Abstract
Learning programming can be a daunting task, especially for students without a programming background or non-computer science students. Most Geographic Information Science (GIS) experts and students come from a non-programming background and the development of applications has mostly been perceived to be a field for computer science students and has mostly been shunned by other non-programming students and courses. Compounded by the availability of Open-Source Data collection tools like the Open Data Kit (ODK), learning programming and android application development is often overlooked by Geo Spatial Scientists. Many studies have been done to identify a suitable application development kit to introduce application development to students in non-programming classes. MIT App inventor is a user-friendly drag-and-drop application development platform that is ideal for introducing application development to students with a non-programming background. In this paper, students doing an undergraduate honors degree in spatial sciences were introduced to the MIT App inventor for the development of a Geo-App capable of collecting spatial data that can be exported into a GIS system like Arc GIS, and QGIS after the data has been collected. The paper investigates the suitability of MIT App Inventor in the development of Geo-Spatial Applications. The application was developed for collaborative mapping of tick species for Mashonaland Central Province in Zimbabwe. The main purpose of the application developed is to act as a tool for veterinary extension workers under the Veterinary Services How to cite this paper: Ndebele, M. and Mazhindu, A.N.
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