Malaria is one of the most cited vector-borne infectious diseases by climate change expert panels. Malaria vectors often need water sheets or wetlands to complete the disease life cycle. The current context of population mobility and global change requires detailed monitoring and surveillance of malaria in all countries. This study analysed the spatiotemporal distribution of death and illness cases caused by autochthonous and imported malaria in Spain during the 20th and 21st centuries using multidisciplinary sources, Geographic Information System (GIS) and geovisualisation. The results obtained reveal that, in the 20th and 21st centuries, malaria has not had a homogeneous spatial distribution. Between 1916 and 1930, 77% of deaths from autochthonous malaria were concentrated in only 20% of Spanish provinces; in 1932, 88% of patients treated in anti-malarial dispensaries were concentrated in these same provinces. These last data reveal the huge potential that anti-malarial dispensaries could have as a tool to reconstruct historical epidemiology. Spanish autochthonous malaria has presented epidemic upsurge episodes, especially those of 1917–1922 and 1939–1944, influenced by armed conflict, population movement and damaged health and hygiene conditions. Although meteorological variables have not played a key role in these epidemic episodes, they contributed by providing suitable conditions for their intensification. After the eradication of autochthonous malaria in 1961, imported malaria cases began to be detected in 1973, reaching more than 700 cases per year at the end of the second decade of the 21st century. Therefore, consistent and detailed historical studies are necessary to better understand the drivers that have led to the decline and elimination of malaria in Europe and other temperate countries.

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Understanding the intra‐annual distribution of rainfall is an important element for climatic classification and serves as a basis for natural resources management. The present study analyses multi‐annual irregularities of the rainfall distribution throughout the year in the period 1941–2010, in the hydrographic basins of the Iberian Peninsula. In order to analyse its variation, the rainfall centralisation and dispersion parameters throughout the annual cycle were previously defined and calculated for each year. Inter‐annual series of both parameters were generated, which allowed detecting their temporal behaviour in each of the basins and relating differentiated geographic areas. Independent of the total annual rainfall, greater temporal simultaneity is observed in the fluctuations of the intra‐annual parameter ‘centralisation’ in the Atlantic basins and wider inter‐annual oscillations in the Mediterranean basins. Around the year 1970, there was a displacement in the predominance of autumn rains, although the process is inverted in the last decades. Also from the decade of 1970 there is a general increase in the inter‐annual variability of the ‘dispersion’ parameter, especially in the basins that drain towards the Atlantic Ocean. The ‘dispersion’ parameter allows detecting latitudinal (Cantabrian vs. Guadalquivir) and longitudinal (Atlantic vs. Mediterranean) patterns of intra‐annual rainfall distribution irregularity in the Iberian Peninsula. The results obtained are also associated to atmospheric general circulation patterns of the North Atlantic Oscillation and the Western Mediterranean Oscillation. The monthly winter values of the North Atlantic Oscillation present a marked influence on dispersion, especially in the basins that discharge into the Atlantic Ocean, which show a double gradient: decreasing longitudinally from the Atlantic coast to the Mediterranean coast and latitudinally from north to south.

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RESUMENEl objetivo del presente estudio fue evaluar la inmunoprotección conferida por dos programas de vacunación en pollos de carne, con diferentes vacunas comerciales del virus de la Enfermedad Infecciosa de la Bursa (EIB). El grupo A fue vacunado con la cepa 2512 (intermedia-fuerte) a los 19 días de edad; el grupo B fue vacunado a los 10 días con la cepa 2512 (intermedia-intermedia) y a los 19 días con la cepa 228TC (intermedia-intermedia); y el grupo C fue el control no vacunado. Los tres grupos fueron desafiados a los 32 días de edad con la cepa estándar F52/70 de la EIB. La protección fue medida a través de signos clínicos (diarrea), tamaño de la bursa, índice bursal, lesiones histopatológicas en bursa, parámetros productivos y títulos de anticuerpos. El tamaño e índice bursal al 7 o día del desafío en los 3 grupos fueron compatibles con atrofia bursal, aunque no afectaron mayormente los parámetros productivos. El peso corporal y los títulos de anticuerpos al final del estudio fueron similares en los grupos A y B, no existiendo diferencia estadís-tica significativa (p>0.05) entre ellos. Los resultados obtenidos de las lesiones bursales, histopatología, índice bursal, parámetros productivos y títulos de anticuerpos indicaron que tanto las aves del grupo A como las del grupo B estuvieron protegidas contra el virus de desafío.

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This study was designed to assess the susceptibility of turtle-doves (Eupelia cruziana) to Newcastle virus. A group of 15 turtle-doves was inoculated with a velogenic viscerotropic strain of the Newcastle virus, and a group of 15 was used as control. Both groups were raised in the same environmental conditions and were fed with similar feeds, but kept separate. Clinical signs and mortality were recorded. Blood samples were tested by the hemaglutination inhibition technique and tissue samples were collected for virus recovery and histological studies. From the inoculated group, 6 birds showed nervous signs like head tremors, neck torsion and uncoordinated movements, and three of them died. Macroscopic lesions were observed on the nervous system. Histological lesions were observed in the brain, and in lungs and tracheal epithelium. An increase in the antibody titers was observed at the 7 th day of exposure to Newcastle virus, reaching the highest titers (PGT= 12.1) at the 21 th day. Viral recovery was obtained in lung and trachea tissues, and from a cloacal swab from dead birds.

Since the early twentieth century, the intensity of malaria transmission has decreased sharply worldwide, although it is still an infectious disease with a yearly estimate of 228 million cases. The aim of this study was to expand our knowledge on the main drivers of malaria in Spain. In the case of autochthonous malaria, these drivers were linked to socioeconomic and hygienic and sanitary conditions, especially in rural areas due to their close proximity to the wetlands that provide an important habitat for anopheline reproduction. In the case of imported malaria, the main drivers were associated with urban areas, a high population density and international communication nodes (e.g. airports). Another relevant aspect is that the major epidemic episodes of the twentieth century were strongly influenced by war and military conflicts and overcrowding of the healthcare system due to the temporal overlap with the pandemic flu of 1918. Therefore, military conflicts and overlap with other epidemics or pandemics are considered to be drivers of malaria that can—in a temporary manner—exponentially intensify transmission of the disease. Climatic factors did not play a relevant role as drivers of malaria in Spain (at least directly). However, they did influence the seasonality of the disease and, during the epidemic outbreak of 1940–1944, the climate conditions favored or coadjuvated its spread. The results of this study provide additional knowledge on the seasonal and interannual variability of malaria that can help to develop and implement health risk control measures. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s41207-021-00245-8.