Environmental suitability for Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus and the spatial distribution of major arboviral infections in Mexico

Jailos Lubinda, Jesús A. Treviño C., Mallory Rose Walsh, Adrian J. Moore, Ahmad Ali Hanafi-bojd, Seval Akgun, Bingxin Zhao, Alassane S. Barro, Mst Marium Begum, Hera Jamal, Aracely Angulo-molina, Ubydul Haque

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Abstract

Background This paper discusses a comparative geographic distribution of Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitoes in Mexico, using environmental suitability modeling and reported cases of arboviral infections. Methods Using presence-only records, we modeled mosquito niches to show how much they influenced the distribution of Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus based on mosquito records collected at the municipality level. Mosquito surveillance data were used to create models regarding the predicted suitability of Ae. albopictus and Ae. aegypti mosquitos in Mexico. Results Ae. albopictus had relatively a better predictive performance (area under the curve, AUC = 0.87) to selected bioclimatic variables compared to Ae. aegypti (AUC = 0.81). Ae. aegypti were more suitable for areas with minimum temperature of coldest month (Bio6, permutation importance 28.7%) −6 °C to 21.5 °C, cumulative winter growing degree days (GDD) between 40 and 500, and precipitation of wettest month (Bio13) >8.4 mm. Minimum temperature range of the coldest month (Bio6) was −6.6 °C to 20.5 °C, and average precipitation of the wettest month (Bio13) 8.9 mm ~ 600 mm were more suitable for the existence of Ae. albopictus. However, arboviral infections maps prepared from the 2012–2016 surveillance data showed cases were reported far beyond predicted municipalities. Conclusions This study identified the urgent necessity to start surveillance in 925 additional municipalities that reported arbovirus infections but did not report Aedes mosquito.
Original languageEnglish
Article numbere00116
JournalParasite Epidemiology and Control
Volume6
Early online date12 Aug 2019
DOIs
Publication statusPublished (in print/issue) - 31 Aug 2019

Keywords

  • Habitat suitability
  • MaxEnt
  • Niche modeling

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