ecology and geography of plague transmission areas in northeastern brazil生态和地理的瘟疫传播巴西东北部地区.pdfVIP

Ecology and Geography of Plague Transmission Areas in Northeastern Brazil 1 1 2 John Giles , A. Townsend Peterson *, Alzira Almeida ˜ 1 Biodiversity Institute, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, United States of America, 2 Departamento de Microbiologia, Centro de Pesquisas Aggeu Magalhaes, Cidade Universitaria, Recife, Brazil Abstract Plague in Brazil is poorly known and now rarely seen, so studies of its ecology are difficult. We used ecological niche models of historical (1966-present) records of human plague cases across northeastern Brazil to assess hypotheses regarding environmental correlates of plague occurrences across the region. Results indicate that the apparently focal distribution of plague in northeastern Brazil is indeed discontinuous, and that the causes of the discontinuity are not necessarily only related to elevation—rather, a diversity of environmental dimensions correlate to presence of plague foci in the region. Perhaps most interesting is that suitable areas for plague show marked seasonal variation in photosynthetic mass, with peaks in April and May, suggesting links to particular land cover types. Next steps in this line of research will require more detailed and specific examination of reservoir ecology and natural history. Citation: Giles J, Peterson AT, Almeida A (2011) Ecology and Geography of Plague Transmission Areas in Northeastern Brazil. PLoS Negl Trop Dis 5(1): e925. doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0000925 ˆ Editor: Giovanna Raso, Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientif