Chromatic and Morphological Differentiation of Triatoma dimidiata (Hemiptera: Reduviidae) with Land Use Diversity in El Salvador

• Published in: Pathogens (Basel) 2021-06, Vol.10 (6), p.753
• Main Authors: Carmona-Galindo, Víctor D., Sheppard, Claire C., Bastin, Madelyn L., Kehrig, Megan R., Marín-Recinos, Maria F., Choi, Joyce J., Castañeda de Abrego, Vianney
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: American trypanosomiasis; Anthropogenic factors; Central America; Chagas disease; Color; Disease transmission; eco health; Environmental changes; Geographic information systems; Green infrastructure; Habitat changes; Infectious diseases; Insecticides; Insects; kissing bug; Land area; Land use; Light; Morphology; neglected tropical diseases; Parasites; phenotypic variation; Physical characteristics; Physical properties; Regression analysis; Signs and symptoms; Symptomology; Triatoma dimidiata; Vector-borne diseases; Vectors
• ISSN: 2076-0817; 2076-0817
• DOI: 10.3390/pathogens10060753

Chagas disease is caused by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, which is transmitted by insect-vectors in the taxonomic subfamily Triatominae and affects approximately 8,000,000 people world-wide. Current mitigation strategies for Chagas focus on insecticides, infrastructure improvements, and management of symptoms, which are largely unsustainable in underserved communities where the disease is widespread. Transmission patterns of vector-borne diseases are known to adaptively respond to habitat change; as such, the objective of our study was to evaluate how the physical characteristics of Triatoma dimidiata would vary in relation to land use in El Salvador. We hypothesized that the color and morphology of T. dimidiata would change with municipal levels of urban and natural green space, natural green space, and agricultural space, as well as municipal diversity, richness, and evenness of land use types. Our results characterize how T. dimidiata color and morphology vary directly with anthropogenic changes to natural and agricultural environments, which are reflective of a highly adaptable population primed to respond to environmental change. Mitigation studies of Chagas disease should exploit the relationships between anthropogenic land use and T. dimidiata morphology to evaluate how the transmission pattern of T. cruzi and Chagas disease symptomology are impacted.