Correlation between populations of Rhodnius and presence of palm trees as risk factors for the emergence of Chagas disease in Amazon region, Brazil

Ricardo-Silva, Alice Helena; Lopes, Catarina Macedo; Ramos, Leandro B.; Marques, William A.; Mello, C.B.; Duarte, Rosemere; Carbajal-de-la-Fuente, Ana Laura; Toma, Helena Keiko; Reboredo-Oliveira, Luciana; Kikuchi, Simone A.; Baptista, Thaiana F.; Santos-Mallet, Jacenir Reis dos; Junqueira, Ângela Cristina Veríssimo; Gonçalves, Teresa Cristina Monte

doi:10.1016/j.actatropica.2012.05.008

Cited by 25 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 32 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…maripa , M. flexuosa and O. bataua . The first four species have previous infestation reports by R. robustus [60,64– 67] while M. flexuosa and O. bataua don’t; however the presence of R. robustus is likely in these two palm species because they have an extended distribution in the Amazon region and reported infestations by other Rhodnius species. Even though Ac.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Co-occurrence or dependence? Using spatial analyses to explore the interaction between palms and triatomines (Chagas disease insect vectors)

Calderón

González

2019

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

BackgroundTriatomine kissing bugs are responsible for the vectorial transmission of the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, etiological agent of Chagas disease, a zoonosis affecting 10 million people and with 25 million at risk of infection. Triatomines are associated with particular habitats that offer shelter and food. Several triatomine species of the Rhodnius genus have close association with palm crowns, where bugs can obtain blood from the associated fauna. The Rhodnius - palm interaction has been reported in several places of Central and South America. However, the association in the distributions of Rhodnius species and palms has not been quantitatively determined.Methodology/Principal FindingsBroad distributions of eight Rhodnius species and 16 palm species with Rhodnius-infestation reports were estimated using Ecological Niche Models. Rhodnius species distributions in their total range were compared to their distributions in areas with palms. Rhodnius species presence was found to be higher in areas with palms. However, that tendency notoriously depended on palm species. Rhodnius species presence increased several times in areas with particular palm species. Moreover, a possible relationship was found between Rhodnius and palm species richness, indicating the Amazon region as the convergent region where several Rhodnius and palm species intersected. Finally, palm distribution was evaluated as predictor of Rhodnius species distributions, but their inclusion in the distributions models did not improve their performance.Conclusions/SignificanceThe distributions of some Rhodnius and palm species showed a high spatial association, which can be based on species interaction or niche similarity. Based on distribution convergence, the Amazon region appear to be the origin of the Rhodnius-palm association. The direct relationship between palms and Rhodnius species richness could be based on the habitat heterogeneity offered by different palm species. Despite spatial association, palm presence would not be a relevant predictor of Rhodnius species distributions in comparison to other environmental variables. Inclusion of other input data as hosts’ distribution could help to increase model predictability.Author summaryThe infestation of palms with Rhodnius genus kissing bugs (Chagas disease vectors) is important from the public health perspective, since insects living in palms can infest nearby houses. The migration of these bugs to households could threaten vector control programs since reinfestation of treated dwellings can occur. Association between Rhodnius and palms species distributions has been previously suggested but never quantitatively determined. The strong association between one palm species and one Rhodnius species can be used as a factor to predict the presence of Rhodnius bugs in definite areas. In this study, we estimated by models the distributions of eight Rhodnius species and 18 Rhodnius-infested palm species. Rhodnius distributions models showed a biased presence toward areas with certain palm species. That specific association was very strong in some cases; however, the presence of associated palm species was used in Rhodnius distributions models, but that did not improve the predictability of the models. Palm presence appear to be not essential for the Rhodnius current distribution because they could inhabit other habitats; but that association could be relevant to the Rhodnius evolutionary and biogeographic history.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…murumuru , At. maripa and O. bataua , have previous infestation reports by R. pictipes [60]. The other palms, As.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Co-occurrence or dependence? Using spatial analyses to explore the interaction between palms and triatomines (Chagas disease insect vectors)

Calderón

González

2019

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…First, some Rhodnius-palm species combinations with wide potential co-occurrence areas had no reported infestations, and secondly, R. pictipes and R. robustus infestation was reported in Ac. aculeata palms [35,36], but the areas of potential cooccurrence were very scarce ( Table 5). For the first situation, it is important to mention that the palm species involved was M. flexuosa, which had the most extended geographical range and the widest niche.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Co-occurrence or dependence? Using spatial analyses to explore the interaction between palms and Rhodnius triatomines

Calderón

González

2020

Parasites Vectors

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background: Triatomine bugs are responsible for the vectorial transmission of the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, the etiological agent of Chagas disease, a zoonosis affecting 10 million people and with 25 million at risk of infection. Triatomines are associated with particular habitats that offer shelter and food. Several triatomine species of the genus Rhodnius have a close association with palm crowns, where bugs can obtain microclimatic stability and blood from the associated fauna. The Rhodnius-palm interaction has been reported in several places of Central and South America. However, the association in the distributions of Rhodnius species and palms has not been explicitly determined. Methods: Niches of Rhodnius and palm species with reports of Rhodnius spp. infestation were estimated by minimum volume ellipsoids and compared in the environmental and the geographical space to identify niche similarity. Rhodnius spp. niche models were run with the palm distributions as environmental variables to determine if palm presence could be considered a predictor of Rhodnius spp. distributions, improving model performance. Results: Niche similarity was found between all the studied Rhodnius and palm species showing variation in niche overlap among the involved species. Most of the areas with suitable conditions for Rhodnius species were also suitable to palm species, being favorable for more than one palm species in the majority of locations. Performance was similar in Rhodnius niche models with and without palm distributions. However, when palm distributions were included, their contribution to the model was high, being the most important variable in some Rhodnius spp. Conclusions: To our knowledge, this is the first time that the distributions of Rhodnius and palm species were compared on a large scale and their spatial association explicitly studied. We found spatial association between Rhodnius and palm species can be explained because both organisms shared environmental requirements, and most of the areas with suitable conditions for Rhodnius species were also suitable to several palm species. Rhodnius presence would not be restricted to palm presence but the zones with palm presence could be more suitable for Rhodnius spp. presence.

show abstract

“…In addition, dogs living in households near royal palms had an 11-fold increased odds of T. cruzi seropositivity ( Table IV ). Infestation of palm trees by triatomines has been considered a risk factor for the transmission of Chagas disease in Panama and other regions of South America ( Whitlaw & Chaniotis 1978 , Romaña et al 2003 , Lima et al 2008 , Angulo et al 2012 , Ricardo-Silva et al 2012 , Hurtado et al 2014) . Royal palms are abundant in the community of Trinidad de Las Minas, yet in the subset of houses we studied, they were clustered towards the north.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Risk factors associated with Trypanosoma cruziexposure in domestic dogs from a rural community in Panama

Saldaña

Calzada

Pineda

et al. 2015

Mem. Inst. Oswaldo Cruz

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Chagas disease, caused by Trypanosoma cruzi infection, is a zoonosis of humans, wild and domestic mammals, including dogs. In Panama, the main T. cruzi vector is hodnius pallescens, a triatomine bug whose main natural habitat is the royal palm, Attalea butyracea. In this paper, we present results from three T. cruzi serological tests (immunochromatographic dipstick, indirect immunofluorescence and ELISA) performed in 51 dogs from 24 houses in Trinidad de Las Minas, western Panama. We found that nine dogs were seropositive (17.6% prevalence). Dogs were 1.6 times more likely to become T. cruzi seropositive with each year of age and 11.6 times if royal palms where present in the peridomiciliary area of the dog's household or its two nearest neighbours. Mouse-baited-adhesive traps were employed to evaluate 12 peridomestic royal palms. All palms were found infested with R. pallescens with an average of 25.50 triatomines captured per palm. Of 35 adult bugs analysed, 88.6% showed protozoa flagellates in their intestinal contents. In addition, dogs were five times more likely to be infected by the presence of an additional domestic animal species in the dog's peridomiciliary environment. Our results suggest that interventions focused on royal palms might reduce the exposure to T. cruzi infection.

show abstract

Correlation between populations of Rhodnius and presence of palm trees as risk factors for the emergence of Chagas disease in Amazon region, Brazil

Cited by 25 publications

References 32 publications

Co-occurrence or dependence? Using spatial analyses to explore the interaction between palms and triatomines (Chagas disease insect vectors)

Co-occurrence or dependence? Using spatial analyses to explore the interaction between palms and triatomines (Chagas disease insect vectors)

Co-occurrence or dependence? Using spatial analyses to explore the interaction between palms and Rhodnius triatomines

Risk factors associated with Trypanosoma cruziexposure in domestic dogs from a rural community in Panama

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About