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Spatial distribution of an infectious disease in a small mammal community

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Abstract

Chagas disease is a zoonosis caused by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi and transmitted by insect vectors to several mammals, but little is known about its spatial epidemiology. We assessed the spatial distribution of T. cruzi infection in vectors and small mammals to test if mammal infection status is related to the proximity to vector colonies. During four consecutive years we captured and georeferenced the locations of mammal species and colonies of Mepraia spinolai, a restricted-movement vector. Infection status on mammals and vectors was evaluated by molecular techniques. To examine the effect of vector colonies on mammal infection status, we constructed an infection distance index using the distance between the location of each captured mammal to each vector colony and the average T. cruzi prevalence of each vector colony, weighted by the number of colonies assessed. We collected and evaluated T. cruzi infection in 944 mammals and 1976 M. spinolai. We found a significant effect of the infection distance index in explaining their infection status, when considering all mammal species together. By examining the most abundant species separately, we found this effect only for the diurnal and gregarious rodent Octodon degus. Spatially explicit models involving the prevalence and location of infected vectors and hosts had not been reported previously for a wild disease.

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Acknowledgments

We thank all the people who helped during the field data collection, F. Peña for molecular analyses and CONAF-Illapel for the logistic support. This study received financial support from FONDECYT 11090086-1140521 (CBM), 1100339-1140650 (PEC-AB), 1120122 (AS) and was partially funded by Program U-Apoya, University of Chile. JPC and FEF were supported by FONDECYT-postdoctoral grants (3140543 and 3140528) and EO by a CONICYT doctoral scholarship.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Ciencias Ecológicas, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Chile, P.O. Box 653, Santiago, Chile

    Juana P. Correa, Francisco E. Fontúrbel, Esteban Oda & Carezza Botto-Mahan

  2. Departamento de Ciencias Biológicas Animales, Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias y Pecuarias, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile

    Antonella Bacigalupo & Pedro E. Cattan

  3. Instituto de Ciencias Biomédicas, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile

    Aldo Solari

Authors
  1. Juana P. Correa
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  2. Antonella Bacigalupo
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  3. Francisco E. Fontúrbel
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  4. Esteban Oda
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  5. Pedro E. Cattan
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  6. Aldo Solari
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  7. Carezza Botto-Mahan
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Carezza Botto-Mahan.

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Communicated by: Sven Thatje

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Correa, J.P., Bacigalupo, A., Fontúrbel, F.E. et al. Spatial distribution of an infectious disease in a small mammal community. Sci Nat 102, 51 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-015-1304-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-015-1304-5

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