Effects of Altitude on the Transmission of Alveolar Echinococcosis
Effects of Altitude on the Transmission of Alveolar Echinococcosis
Yuxia Zhang and Kong Yang*
ABSTRACT
Alveolar echinococcosis is an important cestode diseases with a huge public health impact, it caused by larval of Echinococus multilocularis, whose life cycle requires a variety of canids and small mammals as hosts. The terminal hosts have received a lot of attention, while there are few studies on the distribution and abundance of intermediate hosts. A structural equation model was produced to demonstrate the effects of habitat factors on the distribution and abundance of intermediate hosts of E. multilocularis. Plateau pika (Ochotona curzoniae) act as the main intermediate hosts of E. multilocularis, whose effective cave density was 0.03/m2 to 0.32/m2, and it was negatively correlated with altitude at a high value (p = 0.010). Altitude regulates the distribution and abundance of plateau pika by influencing food resources and their fertility, which in turn affects the transmission of alveolar echinococcosis.
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