Urbanization increase the population abundance of Eared Dove (Zenaida auriculata), amplifying host of St. Louis encephalitis virus (SLEV, Flavivirus)

PERALTA, GIOVANA; ALBRIEU LLINÁS, GUILLERMO; BERANEK, MARUICIO; PELUC, SUSANA; DIAZ, LUIS ADRIAN

New Orleans

Congreso; ASTMH - 17th Annual Meeting; 2018

American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene

Human-ecosystem interactions have changed in the last 10.000 years producing a greater environmental invasion and changes in the use of land cover for the exploitation of natural resources. Among the immediate environmental effects we can refer to global climate change, habitat alteration, changes in the assembly of species and their human interchange that promote the emergence of zoonotic diseases. In Argentina, SLEV emerged as a human pathogen since 2005 when a human encephalitis outbreak occurred in Córdoba city. Eared Dove (Zenaida auriculata) and Culex quinquefasciatus mosquito are the main host and vector species, respectively. The main goal of this study was to evaluate the effect of urbanization over the abundance and production of nests of Eared Dove. Using Landsat 8 satellite images of high-resolution, indexes related to urban landscape (i.e. indicators of built surface, vegetation and productivity, bodies of water, complexity and dominance of landscape elements) were obtained. Córdoba city area was classified into three levels of urbanization (high, medium and low). Abundance of Eared Dove and number of nests were recorded in fixed-width transects in 30 randomized sites in the city (10 for each urbanization level). The distribution of the abundance was analyzed by a Generalized Linear Model (GLM) with negative binomial distribution of errors, log link function. The statistical significance (α= 0.05) of the terms was determined through ANOVA. Built surface was the only tested variable that explained significantly the abundance of Eared Dove. On the other hand, the variable nests of Eared Dove was significantly explained by built surface, high vegetation and distance between low grasses. Our study reveals a positive effect of urbanization over the abundance of Eared Dove. Eared Dove represents the second most abundant bird species and produces 15 times more SLEV infectious mosquitoes than other bird species. The expansion and colonization of urban areas by Eared Dove can be one of the factors causing the emergence of SLEV in Argentina.