info:eu-repo/semantics/article
Chagas disease vector control and Taylor's law
Fecha
2017-11Registro en:
Cohen, Joel E.; Rodríguez Planes, Lucía Inés; Gaspe, Maria Sol; Cecere, Maria Carla; Cardinal, Marta Victoria; et al.; Chagas disease vector control and Taylor's law; Public Library of Science; PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases; 11; 11; 11-2017; 1-34
1935-2735
CONICET Digital
CONICET
Autor
Cohen, Joel E.
Rodríguez Planes, Lucía Inés
Gaspe, Maria Sol
Cecere, Maria Carla
Cardinal, Marta Victoria
Gurtler, Ricardo Esteban
Resumen
Background: Large spatial and temporal fluctuations in the population density of living organisms have profound consequences for biodiversity conservation, food production, pest control and disease control, especially vector-borne disease control. Chagas disease vector control based on insecticide spraying could benefit from improved concepts and methods to deal with spatial variations in vector population density. Methodology/Principal findings: We show that Taylor's law (TL) of fluctuation scaling describes accurately the mean and variance over space of relative abundance, by habitat, of four insect vectors of Chagas disease (Triatoma infestans, Triatoma guasayana, Triatoma garciabesi and Triatoma sordida) in 33,908 searches of people's dwellings and associated habitats in 79 field surveys in four districts in the Argentine Chaco region, before and after insecticide spraying. As TL predicts, the logarithm of the sample variance of bug relative abundance closely approximates a linear function of the logarithm of the sample mean of abundance in different habitats. Slopes of TL indicate spatial aggregation or variation in habitat suitability. Predictions of new mathematical models of the effect of vector control measures on TL agree overall with field data before and after community-wide spraying of insecticide. Conclusions/Significance: A spatial Taylor's law identifies key habitats with high average infestation and spatially highly variable infestation, providing a new instrument for the control and elimination of the vectors of a major human disease.