Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Decoys and Dilution: The Impact of Incompetent Hosts on Prevalence of Chagas Disease

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Bulletin of Mathematical Biology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Biodiversity is commonly believed to reduce risk of vector-borne zoonoses. However, researchers already showed that the effect of biodiversity on disease transmission is not that straightforward. This study focuses on the effect of biodiversity, specifically on the effect of the decoy process (additional hosts distracting vectors from their focal host), on reducing infections of vector-borne diseases in humans. Here, we consider the specific case of Chagas disease and use mathematical population models to observe the impact on human infection of the proximity of chickens, which are incompetent hosts for the parasite but serve as a preferred food source for vectors. We consider three cases as the distance between the two host populations varies: short (when farmers bring chickens inside the home to protect them from predators), intermediate (close enough for vectors with one host to detect the presence of the other host type), and far (separate enclosed buildings such as a home and hen-house). Our analysis shows that the presence of chickens reduces parasite prevalence in humans only at an intermediate distance under the condition that the vector birth rate from feeding on chickens is sufficiently low.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Cecere MC, Gürtler RE, Chuit R, Cohen J (1997) Effects of chickens on the prevalence of infestation and population density of Triatoma infestans in rural houses of north-west Argentina. Med Vet Entomol 11:383–388

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Center for Disease Control and Prevention (2019) Parasites—American Trypanosomiasis (also known as Chagas Disease). https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/chagas/disease.html. Accessed 05 Sep 2019

  • Center for Disease Control and Prevention (2019) Parasites-American Trypanosomiasis (also known as Chagas Disease). https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/chagas/gen_info/detailed.html. Accessed 22 Oct 2017

  • Central Intelligence Agency, CIA. The World Factbook, Update date: November 2018. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ar.html. Accessed 22 Nov 2018

  • De Urioste-Stone SM, Pennington PM, Pellecer E, Aguilar TM, Samayoa G, Perdomo HD, Enrxacutequez H, Juárez JG (2015) Development of a community-based intervention for the control of Chagas disease based on peridomestic animal management: an eco-bio-social perspective. Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg 109:159–167

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Diekmann O, Heesterbeek JAP, Metz JAJ (1990) On the definition and the computation of the basic reproduction ratio \(R_0\) in models for infectious diseases in heterogeneous populations. J Math Biol 28:365–382

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • Diosque P, Padilla AM, Cimino RO, Cardozo RM, Negrette OS, Marco JD, Zacca R, Meza C, Juarez A, Rojo H, Rey R, Corrales RM, Naseer JR, Basombrío MA (2004) Chagas disease in rural areas of Chaco province, Argentina: epidemiologic survey in humans, reservoirs, and vectors. Am J Trop Med Hyg 71(5):590–593

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • DNDi (2018) Disease Factsheet: Chagas disease. https://www.dndi.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Factsheet2018_Chagas.pdf. Accessed 05 Sep 2019

  • Dobson A, Cattadori I, Holt RD, Ostfeld RS, Keesing F, Krichbaum K, Rohr JR, Perkins SE, Hudson PJ (2006) Sacred cows and sympathetic squirrels: the importance of biological diversity to human health. Annu Rev Ecol Evol Syst 3(6):714–718

    Google Scholar 

  • Galvao C, da Silva Rocha D, Jurburg J, Carcavallo R (2001) Início da atividade de vôo em Triatoma infestans (Klug, 1834) e T. melanosoma Martínez, Olmedo & Carcavallo, 1987 (Hemiptera, Reduviidae), Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, 96: 137–140

  • Gillespie DT (1976) A general method for numerically simulating the stochastic time evolution of coupled chemical reactions. J Comput Phys 22:403–434

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • Guerenstein PG, Lazzari CR (2009) Host-seeking: how triatomines acquire and make use of information to find blood. Acta Trop 110:148–158

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gürtler RE, Cécere MC, Petersen RM, Rubel DN, Schweigmann NJ (1993) Chagas disease in north-west Argentina: association between Trypanosoma cruzi parasitaemia in dogs and cats and infection rates in domestic Triatoma infestans. Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg 87:12–15

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gürtler RE, Cecere MC, Vazquez DP, Chuit R, Cohen JE (1996) Host-feeding patterns of domiciliary triatoma infestans (Hemiptera: Reduviidae) in Northwest Argentina: seasonal and instar variation. J Med Entomol 33(1):15–26

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gürtler RE, Cohen JE, Cecere MC, Chuit R (1997) Shifting host choices of the vector of chagas disease, Triatoma infestans, in relation to the availability of host in houses in North-West Argentina. J Appl Ecol 34(3):699–715

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gürtler RE, Cohen JE, Cecere MC, Lauricella MA, Chuit R, Segura EL (1998) Influence of humans and domestic animals on the household prevalence of Trypanosoma cruzi in Triatoma infestans populations in northwest Argentina. Am J Trop Med Hyg 58(6):748–758

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gürtler RE, Cecere MC, Lauricella MA, Cardinal MV, Kitron U, Cohen JE (2007) Domestic dogs and cats as sources of Trypanosoma cruzi infection in rural northwestern Argentina. Parasitology 134(1):69–82

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gürtler RE, Cecere MC, Vázquez-Prokopec GM, Ceballos LA, Gurevitz JM, Fernández MP, Kitron U, Cohen JE (2014) Domestic animal hosts strongly influence human-feeding rates of the chagas disease vector Triatoma infestans in Argentina. PLOS Negl Trop Dis 8(5):e2894. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0002894

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Info Chagas, What you need to know about Chagas disease. http://www.infochagas.org/en/cuales-son-los-sintomas. Accessed 05 Sep 2019

  • Johns Hopkins Medicine, Chagas Disease. https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/chagas-disease. Accessed 05 Sep 2019

  • Johnson PTJ, Thieltges DW (2010) Diversity, decoys and the dilution effect: how ecological communities affect disease risk. J Exp Biol 213:961–970

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kribs CM, Mitchell C (2015) Host switching vs. host sharing in overlapping sylvatic Trypanosoma cruzi transmission cycle. J Biol Dyn 9:247–277

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • Kribs-Zaleta C (2010) Estimating contact process saturation in sylvatic transmission of Trypanosoma cruzi in the United States. PLOS Negl Trop Dis 4(4):e656. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0000656

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kribs-Zaleta CM (2010) Alternative transmission modes for Trypanosoma cruzi. Math Biosci Eng 7:657–673

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • Lazzari CR, Pereira MH, Lorenzo MG (2013) Behavioural biology of Chagas disease vectors. Mem Inst Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de Janeiro, 108(Suppl. I):34–47

  • Loguidice K, Duerr STK, Newhouse MJ, Schmidt KA, Killilea ME, Ostfeld RS (2008) Impact of host community composition on Lyme Disease risk. Ecology 89(10):2841–2849

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marcet PL, Duffy T, Cardinal MV, Burgos JM, Lauricella MA, Levin MJ, Kitron U, Gürtler RE, Schijman AG (2006) PCR-based screening and lineage identification of Trypanosoma cruzi directly from faecal samples of triatomine bugs from northwestern Argentina. Parasitology 132:57–65

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mayo Clinic (2017) Chagas disease. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/chagas-disease/diagnosis-treatment/drc-20356218. Accessed 05 Sep 2019

  • Medone P, Balsalrobe A, Rabinovich JE, Marti GA, Menu F (2015) Life history traits and demographic parameters of triatoma infestans (Hemiptera: Reduviidae) fed on human blood. Polpul Biol Genet 52(6):1282–1290

    Google Scholar 

  • Miller E, Huppert A (2014) Correction: the effects of host diversity on vector-borne disease: the conditions under which diversity will amplify or dilute the disease risk. PLOS One 9(1):1–10

    Google Scholar 

  • Moncayo Á, Silveira AC (2012) Current epidemiological trends of Chagas disease in Latin America and future challenges: epidemiology, surveillance, and health policies. Academia Nacional de Medicina, Bogotá, Colombia 4:60–88

    Google Scholar 

  • Negrette OS, Mora MC, Basombrío MÁ (2005) High prevalence of congenital Trypanosoma cruzi infection and family clustering in Salta, Argentina. Pediatrics 115(6):668–672

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ngwa GA (2006) On the population dynamics of the malaria vector. Bull Math Biol 68:2161–2189

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • Ngwa GA, Wankah TT, Fomboh-Nforba MY, Ngonghala CN, Teboh-Ewungkem MI (2014) On a reproductive stage-structured model for the population dynamics of the malaria vector. Bull Math Biol 76:2476–2516

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • Ostfeld RS, Keesing F (2012) Effects of host diversity on infectious disease. Annu Rev Ecol Evol Syst 43:157–182

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Saul A (2003) Zooprophylaxis or zoopotentiation: the outcome of introducing animals on vector transmission is highly dependent on the mosquito mortality while searching. Malar J 2:32

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • World Health Organization (2019) Chagas disease (American trypanosomiasis). http://www.who.int/chagas/disease/en/. Accessed 22 Oct 2017

  • World Health Organization (2019) Chagas disease (American trypanosomiasis). https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/chagas-disease-(american-trypanosomiasis). Accessed 05 Sep 2019

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank Dr. Ricardo E. Gürtler, Professor and Laboratory Head, Department of Ecology, Genetics and Evolution, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, for providing necessary information regarding our few queries which helped us to prepare part of our manuscript and also for suggesting an appropriate reference to our study.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mathematics, University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX, 76019, USA

    Mondal Hasan Zahid & Christopher M. Kribs

Authors
  1. Mondal Hasan Zahid
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Christopher M. Kribs
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mondal Hasan Zahid.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Zahid, M.H., Kribs, C.M. Decoys and Dilution: The Impact of Incompetent Hosts on Prevalence of Chagas Disease. Bull Math Biol 82, 41 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11538-020-00710-5

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11538-020-00710-5

Keywords

Search

Navigation