EFFECT OF SATELLITE-DERIVED ON THE SPATIAL ABUNDANCE OF ANOPHELES (DIPTERA: CULICIDAE) IN MISIONES, ARGENTINA.

MARTÍN, MÍA E.; STEIN, MARINA; RAMIREZ, PATRICIA; ORIA, GRISELDA; KURUC, JORGE A.; ESTALLO, ELIZABET L.

Congreso; VIII congreso internacional de ciencia y tecnología aeroespacial; 2020

IEEE Universidad Distrital

Spatial epidemiology is the study of spatial variation in disease risk or incidence. Several environmental characteristics can affected the presence, abundance and distribution of vector population, and these can be mapped using satellite images. The presence of the vector, Anopheles is crucial for the transmission of malaria; therefore, we investigate the relationship between the abundance of Anopheles mosquitoes and the characteristics of the environment estimated from high-resolution satellite images in Misiones, Argentina. Monthly samplings between June 2012 and June 2014 in 4 locations (with previous malaria case records) were carried out. Proportion of land cover classes obtained from supervised classifications from SPOT-5 images (water, bare soil, farmland, low vegetation, high vegetation and urban areas), as well as average of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Normalized Difference Water Index in buffer areas of 3km were used to characterize and identify suitable environmental conditions for the development of mosquitoes through Generalized Linear Mixed Models. In addition, the distance from locations to the closest point of water, vegetation and urban areas was calculated using Google Earth. Sixteen species were collected and An. strodei was the most abundant, found it in all locations. The models showed that high abundance of Anopheles mosquitoes was negatively associated with NDVI values and distance of vegetation, while An. strodei abundance was positively related to the presence of water land cover, but negatively related to the NDVI values. In conclusion, the use of high-resolution satellite images was able to identify the relationship of land cover with the abundance of Anopheles mosquitoes.