The eco-epidemiology of house infestation with Triatoma infestans in the temperate Monte Desert ecoregion, Argentina

FERNÁNDEZ MP; SPILLMANN C; PROVECHO YM.; LENCINA P; CARBAJAL DE LA FUENTE AL; CARDINAL MV; GÜRTLER RE

MEMóRIAS DO INSTITUTO OSWALDO CRUZ.

FUNDACO OSWALDO CRUZ

Lugar: Rio de Janeiro; Año: 2017 vol. 112 p. 698 - 708

0074-0276

The eco-epidemiological status of Chagas disease in the Monte Desert ecoregion of Argentina is largely unknown. We investigated the environmental and socio-demographic determinants of house infestation with Triatoma infestans, bug abundance, vector infection with Trypanosoma cruzi and host-feeding sources in a rural area of Mendoza province. Technical personnel inspected 198 houses for evidence of infestation with T. infestans and the 76 houses included in the current study were re-inspected. Households comprised an aged population living in precarious houses and whose main economic activity was goat husbandry. T. infestans was found in 21.2% of 198 houses and in 55.3% of the 76 re-inspected houses. Peridomestic habitats exhibited higher infestation and bug abundance than domiciles, and goat corrals showed high infestation. The main host-feeding sources were goats. Vector infection was 10.2% in domiciles and 3.2% in peridomiciles. Generalized linear models showed that peridomestic infestation was positively and significantly associated with the presence of mud walls and the abundance of chickens and goats, and bug abundance increased with the number of all hosts except rabbits. Environmental management strategies framed in a community-based program combined with improved insecticide spraying and sustained vector surveillance are needed to effectively suppress local T. infestans populations.