ENVIRONMENTAL VARIABLES, REMOTE SENSING, AND GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION SYSTEMS APPLIED TO THE STUDY OF RHODNIUS PROLIXUS DISTRIBUTION IN COLOMBIA

Abstract

A database of the entomological survey performed during the Chagas Disease National Control Programme (CHDNCP) in 1997-2001 and temporal satellite image maps containing 57 environmental variables were used to build Rhodnius prolixus dispersion predictive maps in Colombia, based on temporal images, Fourier analyses, and a discriminative multivariate statistical analysis of the variables studied. The maps show the dispersion of this species and its implications for Chagas disease transmission in Colombia.

A clear division in the predictive dispersion of R. prolixus in two geographical zones was found: one area in the southeast of the Eastern Cordillera associated with the environmental variables used in the present study and a second zone in the Andean Valleys, East of the Eastern Cordillera not much defined by the same variables. This would suggest that the Southwest Region of Colombia presents a tendency to a wider dispersion of R. prolixus associated with other variables like human intervention.

Sylvatic populations of R. prolixus were found recently in Attalea butyracea palm trees in this Region of the Eastern Plains, demonstrating the prediction of the presence of this species.