The Spatio-Temporal Distribution of a Rodent Reservoir Host of Cutaneous Leishmaniasis

• Published in: The Journal of applied ecology Vol. 37; no. 4; pp. 603 - 615
• Main Authors: Fichet-Calvet, E., Jomaa, I., Zaafouri, B., Ashford, R. W., Ben-Ismail, R., Delattre, P.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Science Ltd 01.08.2000; Blackwell Science; Blackwell Publishing Ltd; Wiley
• Subjects: Animal and plant ecology; Animal protozoal diseases; Animal, plant and microbial ecology; Animals; Applied ecology; Biological and medical sciences; Cutaneous leishmaniasis; Demecology; dynamics; Floods; Food crops; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Habitats; Human ecology; Infectious diseases; landscape ecology; Leishmania major; Life Sciences; Mammalia; Medical sciences; Microbiology and Parasitology; Parasitic diseases; Plants; Protozoal diseases; Psammomys obesus; Rodentia; Rodents; salt habitat; Santé publique et épidémiologie; Spatial distribution; Tunisia; Vegetation; Vertebrata; North Africa; Africa; Kinetoplastida; Protozoa; Protozoal disease; Rodentia; Risk; Reservoir; Parasitosis; Leishmaniasis; Zoonosis; Epidemiology; Infection; Prevention; Vertebrata; Mammalia; Outbreak; Investigation method; Geographic distribution; Transmission from animal to man; Population dynamics; Habitat; Leishmania major; salt habitat; dynamics; landscape ecology
• ISSN: 0021-8901; 1365-2664
• DOI: 10.1046/j.1365-2664.2000.00522.x

1. The rodent Psammomys obesus is the main reservoir host for Leishmania major, the causative agent of cutaneous leishmaniasis in Tunisia, much of North Africa and mid-western Asia. An understanding of the population dynamics of this rodent is essential to establish a preventive control strategy based on the carly prediction of rodent outbreaks. 2. The study of P. obesus dynamics at a regional scale requires index-based sampling. Rodent numbers were monitored twice per year at the beginning and end of the breeding season, using transects around the Sidi Bouzid region in central Tunisia. 3. Two different types of dynamics occurred in two drainage basins. Rodents living in the northern basin were at low density and those living in the southern basin were at high density. 4. At the scale of a plot, occupied burrows were generally associated with the presence of three Chenopodiaceae: Arthrocnemum glaucum, Salsola tetrandra and Suoeda fruticosa, rarely in monospecific formations. However, in dry periods, occupied burrows drifted to A. glaucum formation linked with high moisture and salinity of the soil (χ2MacNemar = 6.26). 5. The risk of a P. obesus outbreak can be assessed by a simultaneous knowledge of flooding regimes in the drainage basins, the distribution of halophytic plant formations, and the progressive movements of the rodents as drying out proceeds. The transect indices of rodents are easily repeatable, economical and would be applicable in other developing countries where cutaneous leishmaniasis occurs. 6. This work illustrates that simple ecological methods can assist the assessment of spatial and temporal components of epidemiological risk such as the proximity between rodent colonies and human habitats at the time of outbreaks.