Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T07:15:15.775Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Environmental parameters as risk factors for human and canine Leishmania infection in Thessaly, Central Greece

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 May 2016

ALEXIOS GIANNAKOPOULOS ,
CONSTANTINA N. TSOKANA ,
DANAI PERVANIDOU ,
ELIAS PAPADOPOULOS ,
KONSTANTINOS PAPASPYROPOULOS ,
VASSILIKI SPYROU ,
ANGELIKI RODI BURRIEL ,
ANNITA VAKALI ,
CHRISTOS HADJICHRISTODOULOU  and
CHARALAMBOS BILLINIS
ALEXIOS GIANNAKOPOULOS
Affiliation:
Department of Microbiology and Parasitology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Thessaly, 224 str. Trikalon, 43100, Karditsa, Greece
CONSTANTINA N. TSOKANA
Affiliation:
Department of Microbiology and Parasitology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Thessaly, 224 str. Trikalon, 43100, Karditsa, Greece
DANAI PERVANIDOU
Affiliation:
Department of Epidemiological Surveillance and Intervention, Hellenic Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Athens, Greece
ELIAS PAPADOPOULOS
Affiliation:
Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Aristotle University, Thessaloniki, Greece
KONSTANTINOS PAPASPYROPOULOS
Affiliation:
Research Division, Hunting Federation of Macedonia and Thrace, Ethnikis Antistasis 173–175, 55134 Thessaloniki, Greece
VASSILIKI SPYROU
Affiliation:
Department of Animal Production, Technological Education Institute of Larissa, Larissa, 41335, Greece
ANGELIKI RODI BURRIEL
Affiliation:
Department of Microbiology and Parasitology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Thessaly, 224 str. Trikalon, 43100, Karditsa, Greece
ANNITA VAKALI
Affiliation:
Department of Epidemiological Surveillance and Intervention, Hellenic Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Athens, Greece
CHRISTOS HADJICHRISTODOULOU
Affiliation:
Department of Epidemiological Surveillance and Intervention, Hellenic Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Athens, Greece Department of Hygiene and Epidemiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Thessaly, 22 Papakyriazi str, 41222, Larissa, Greece
CHARALAMBOS BILLINIS*
Affiliation:
Department of Microbiology and Parasitology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Thessaly, 224 str. Trikalon, 43100, Karditsa, Greece
*
*Corresponding author. Department of Microbiology and Parasitology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Thessaly, 224 str. Trikalon, 43100, Karditsa, Greece. E-mail: billinis@vet.uth.gr
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Thessaly, Central Greece, is an endemic area for leishmaniasis with higher incidence rate during the last years. We herein investigated the geographical distribution of human leishmaniasis cases and Leishmania infected dogs in relation to environmental parameters to identify high-risk areas. All the human leishmaniasis cases (n = 82) reported to Hellenic Centre for Disease Control and Prevention from 2007 to 2014 and 85 Leishmania polymerase chain reaction positive dogs were included in this study. To analyse the data geographical information system (GIS) together with the Ecological Niche Model (ENM) were used. The most important findings of the study were: (i) Central plain of Thessaly together with the coast line and the western and eastern lowlands were identified as high-risk geographical areas. (ii) The highest percentage of the high-risk areas was found in low altitude (<200 m above sea level) and in irrigated and cultivated agricultural areas. (iii) A total of 20% of the human settlements was found in high-risk areas. (iv) The maximum temperature of the warmest month contributes the highest per cent to define both environmental niche profiles for humans and dogs. (v) The ENM could be a useful tool for the epidemiological study of leishmaniasis. Spatial analysis may allow the design of entomological studies and identify target population in order to implement preventive measures.

Keywords

Leishmaniahuman leishmaniasis casesdogsGISGreece
Type
Research Article
Information
Parasitology , Volume 143 , Issue 9 , August 2016 , pp. 1179 - 1186
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Abdel-Dayem, M. S., Annajar, B. B., Hanafi, H. A. and Obenauer, P. J. (2012). The potential distribution of Phlebotomus papatasi (Diptera: Psychodidae) in Libya based on ecological niche model. Journal of Medical Entomology 49, 739–745.Google Scholar
Alonso, F., Giménez Font, P., Manchón, M., Ruiz de Ybáñez, R., Segovia, M. and Berriatua, E. (2010). Geographical variation and factors associated to seroprevalence of canine leishmaniosis in an endemic Mediterranean area. Zoonoses and Public Health 57, 318–328.Google Scholar
Aspöck, H., Gerersdorfer, T., Formayer, H. and Walochnik, J. (2008). Sandflies and sandfly-borne infections of humans in Central Europe in the light of climate change. Wiener Klinische Wochenschrift 120, 24–29.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Athanasiou, L. V., Kontos, V. I., Saridomichelakis, M. N., Rallis, T. S. and Diakou, A. (2012). A cross-sectional sero-epidemiological study of canine leishmaniasis in Greek mainland. Acta Tropica 122, 291–295.Google Scholar
Ballart, C., Guerrero, I., Castells, X., Barón, S., Castillejo, S., Alcover, M. M., Portús, M. and Gállego, M. (2014). Importance of individual analysis of environmental and climatic factors affecting the density of Leishmania vectors living in the same geographical area: the example of Phlebotomus ariasi and P. perniciosus in northeast Spain. Geospatial Health 8, 389–403.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Barón, S. D., Morillas-MáRquez, F., Morales-Yuste, M., DíAz-SáEz, V., GáLlego, M., Molina, R. and MartíN-SáNchez, J. (2013). Predicting the risk of an endemic focus of Leishmania tropica becoming established in south-western Europe through the presence of its main vector, Phlebotomus sergenti Parrot, 1917. Parasitology 140, 1413–1421.Google Scholar
Ceccarelli, S., Balsalobre, A., Susevich, M. L., Echeverria, M. G., Gorla, D. E. and Marti, G. A. (2015). Modelling the potential geographic distribution of triatomines infected by Triatoma virus in the southern cone of South America. Parasites and Vectors 8, 153.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chamaillé, L., Tran, A., Meunier, A., Bourdoiseau, G., Ready, P. and Dedet, J.-P. (2010). Environmental risk mapping of canine leishmaniasis in France. Parasites and Vectors 3, 31.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Christodoulou, V., Antoniou, M., Ntais, P., Messaritakis, I., Ivovic, V., Dedet, J.-P., Pratlong, F., Dvorak, V. and Tselentis, Y. (2012). Re-emergence of visceral and cutaneous leishmaniasis in the Greek Island of Crete. Vector Borne and Zoonotic Diseases (Larchmont, N.Y.) 12, 214–222.Google Scholar
Colacicco-Mayhugh, M. G., Masuoka, P. M. and Grieco, J. P. (2010). Ecological niche model of Phlebotomus alexandri and P. papatasi (Diptera: Psychodidae) in the Middle East. International Journal of Health Geographics 9, 2.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Domenikiotis, C., Spiliotopoulos, M., Tsiros, E. and Dalezios, N. R. (2005). Remotely sensed estimation of annual cotton production under different environmental conditions in Central Greece. Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, Parts A/B/C 30, 45–52.Google Scholar
Elnaiem, D. A., Connor, S. J., Thomson, M. C., Hassan, M. M., Hassan, H. K., Aboud, M. A. and Ashford, R. W. (1998). Environmental determinants of the distribution of Phlebotomus orientalis in Sudan. Annals of Tropical Medicine and Parasitology 92, 877–887.Google Scholar
Franco, A. O., Davies, C. R., Mylne, A., Dedet, J.-P., Gállego, M., Ballart, C., Gramiccia, M., Gradoni, L., Molina, R., Gálvez, R., Morillas-Márquez, F., Barón-López, S., Pires, C. A., Afonso, M. O., Ready, P. D. and Cox, J. (2011). Predicting the distribution of canine leishmaniasis in western Europe based on environmental variables. Parasitology 138, 1878–1891.Google Scholar
Gage, K. L., Burkot, T. R., Eisen, R. J. and Hayes, E. B. (2008). Climate and vectorborne diseases. American Journal of Preventive Medicine 35, 436–450.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gkolfinopoulou, K., Bitsolas, N., Patrinos, S., Veneti, L., Marka, A., Dougas, G., Pervanidou, D., Detsis, M., Triantafillou, E., Georgakopoulou, T., Billinis, C., Kremastinou, J. and Hadjichristodoulou, C. (2013). Epidemiology of human leishmaniasis in Greece, 1981–2011. Euro Surveillance: Bulletin Européen Sur Les Maladies Transmissibles = European Communicable Disease Bulletin 18, 20532.Google Scholar
Hijmans, R. J., Cameron, S. E., Parra, J. L., Jones, P. G. and Jarvis, A. (2005). Very high resolution interpolated climate surfaces for global land areas. International Journal of Climatology 25, 1965–1978.Google Scholar
Islam, A. (2013). Manual of Bone Marrow Examination. Trafford Publishing, Bloomington, USA.Google Scholar
Ivović, V., Patakakis, M., Tselentis, Y. and Chaniotis, B. (2007). Faunistic study of sandflies in Greece. Medical and Veterinary Entomology 21, 121–124.Google Scholar
Kassem, H. A., Tewfick, M. K. and Sawaf, B. M. El (2001). Evaluation of avermectins as sandfly control agents. Annals of Tropical Medicine and Parasitology 95, 405–411.Google Scholar
Killick-Kendrick, R. (1999). The biology and control of Phlebotomine sand flies. Clinics in Dermatology 17, 279–289.Google Scholar
Leite, R. S., Ferreira, S. de A., Ituassu, L. T., de Melo, M. N. and de Andrade, A. S. R. (2010). PCR diagnosis of visceral leishmaniasis in asymptomatic dogs using conjunctival swab samples. Veterinary Parasitology 170, 201–206.Google Scholar
Ntais, P., Sifaki-Pistola, D., Christodoulou, V., Messaritakis, I., Pratlong, F., Poupalos, G. and Antoniou, M. (2013). Leishmaniases in Greece. The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 89, 906–915.Google Scholar
Ozbel, Y., Sanjoba, C., Alten, B., Asada, M., Depaquit, J., Matsumoto, Y., Demir, S., Siyambalagoda, R. R. M. L. R., Rajapakse, R. P. V. J. and Matsumoto, Y. (2011). Distribution and ecological aspects of sand fly (Diptera: Psychodidae) species in Sri Lanka. Journal of Vector Ecology: Journal of the Society for Vector Ecology 36 (Suppl. 1), S77–S86.Google Scholar
Phillips, S. J., Anderson, R. P. and Schapire, R. E. (2006). Maximum entropy modeling of species geographic distributions. Ecological Modelling 190, 231–259.Google Scholar
Ready, P. D. (2010). Leishmaniasis emergence in Europe. Euro Surveillance: Bulletin Européen Sur Les Maladies Transmissibles European Communicable Disease Bulletin 15, 19505.Google ScholarPubMed
Seid, A., Gadisa, E., Tsegaw, T., Abera, A., Teshome, A., Mulugeta, A., Herrero, M., Argaw, D., Jorge, A., Kebede, A. and Aseffa, A. (2014). Risk map for cutaneous leishmaniasis in Ethiopia based on environmental factors as revealed by geographical information systems and statistics. Geospatial Health 8, 377–387.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sifaki-Pistola, D., Ntais, P., Christodoulou, V., Mazeris, A. and Antoniou, M. (2014). The use of spatial analysis to estimate the prevalence of canine leishmaniasis in Greece and Cyprus to predict its future variation and relate it to human disease. The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 91, 336–341.Google Scholar
Spanakos, G., Patsoula, E., Kremastinou, T., Saroglou, G. and Vakalis, N. (2002). Development of a PCR-based method for diagnosis of Leishmania in blood samples. Molecular and Cellular Probes 16, 415–420.Google Scholar
Tsegaw, T., Gadisa, E., Seid, A., Abera, A., Teshome, A., Mulugeta, A., Herrero, M., Argaw, D., Jorge, A. and Aseffa, A. (2013). Identification of environmental parameters and risk mapping of visceral leishmaniasis in Ethiopia by using geographical information systems and a statistical approach. Geospatial Health 7, 299–308.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Giannakopoulos supplementary material

Supplementary Table

Download Giannakopoulos supplementary material(File)
File 22.1 KB