Ecological Requirements for Abundance and Dispersion of Brazilian Yellow Fever Vectors in Tropical Areas

Amanda Francisco Prado (), Paula Ribeiro Prist, Luis Filipe Mucci and Patrícia Domingues de Freitas
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Amanda Francisco Prado: Department of Genetics and Evolution, Center for Biological and Health Sciences, Federal University of São Carlos, Rodovia Washington Luis km 235, São Carlos 13565-905, SP, Brazil
Paula Ribeiro Prist: EcoHealth Alliance, 520 8th Avenue ste 1200, New York, NY 10018, USA
Luis Filipe Mucci: Taubaté Regional Lab., State Department of Health of São Paulo, Instituto Pasteur, Pça. Coronel Vitoriano, 23, Taubate 12020-020, SP, Brazil
Patrícia Domingues de Freitas: Department of Genetics and Evolution, Center for Biological and Health Sciences, Federal University of São Carlos, Rodovia Washington Luis km 235, São Carlos 13565-905, SP, Brazil

IJERPH, 2024, vol. 21, issue 5, 1-17

Abstract: In the Americas, wild yellow fever (WYF) is an infectious disease that is highly lethal for some non-human primate species and non-vaccinated people. Specifically, in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, Haemagogus leucocelaenus and Haemagogus janthinomys mosquitoes act as the major vectors. Despite transmission risk being related to vector densities, little is known about how landscape structure affects vector abundance and movement. To fill these gaps, we used vector abundance data and a model-selection approach to assess how landscape structure affects vector abundance, aiming to identify connecting elements for virus dispersion in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. Our findings show that Hg. leucocelaenus and Hg. janthinomys abundances, in highly degraded and fragmented landscapes, are mainly affected by increases in forest cover at scales of 2.0 and 2.5 km, respectively. Fragmented landscapes provide ecological corridors for vector dispersion, which, along with high vector abundance, promotes the creation of risk areas for WYF virus spread, especially along the border with Minas Gerais state, the upper edges of the Serra do Mar, in the Serra da Cantareira, and in areas of the metropolitan regions of São Paulo and Campinas.

Keywords: Atlantic Forest; disease ecology; human health; virus; land-use change; landscape ecology; abundance modeling; risk area; connectivity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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