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A PROSPECTIVE STUDY OF THE EFFECTS OF SUSTAINED VECTOR SURVEILLANCE FOLLOWING COMMUNITY-WIDE INSECTICIDE APPLICATION ON TRYPANOSOMA CRUZI INFECTION OF DOGS AND CATS IN RURAL NORTHWESTERN ARGENTINA

Domestic dogs were used as natural sentinels to assess prospectively the long-term impact of selective, community-based spraying with pyrethroid insecticides after community-wide spraying on transmission of Trypanosoma cruzi in rural villages under surveillance between 1992 and 2002. In 2000 and 2002 light infestations by Triatoma infestans were recorded, and 523 dogs and cats were examined serologically or by xenodiagnosis. The prevalence of T. cruzi infection in dogs decreased from 65% at baseline to 8.9% and 4.7% at 7.5 and 10 years after sustained vector surveillance, respectively. The average annual force of infection dropped 260-fold from 72.7 per 100 dog-years at baseline to <0.3% in 2002, as determined prospectively and retrospectively from the age-prevalence curve of native dogs born during surveillance. Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that prevalent cases in dogs in 2000 and 2002 were associated positively and significantly with the peak number of T. infestans caught in domestic areas at the dog’s compound during its lifetime. The sustained decline in T. cruzi infections in dogs and cats is the result of selective, community-based insecticide spraying that kept the abundance of infected T. infestans at marginal levels, fast host population turnover, and low immigration rates from areas with active transmission.

Received January 16, 2006. Accepted for publication May 6, 2006.

Acknowledgments: We are grateful to Marcela Orozco, Paula Marcet, Francisco Petrocco, Cristina Maidana, Juan Pablo Hurtado, and María Lucía Colli for technical assistance. We also thank Sonia Blanco (deceased May 3, 2005), Cynthia Spillmann, and Raúl Stariolo (National Vector Control Program, Argentina). Antonio Cañones Olmo and Nilo Baiocci kindly provided field accommodation and Richard Reithinger made helpful comments on a prior version of the manuscript. The Amamá database is the product of a sustained collaborative effort between researchers from the University of Buenos Aires (Ricardo E. Gürtler); Directorate of Epidemiology and National Chagas Service, Minister of Health and Social Action of Argentina (Roberto Chuit), and Rockefeller University (Joel E. Cohen) between 1992 and 2000.

Financial support: This study was supported by awards from the National Institutes of Health/National Science Foundation, Ecology of Infectious Disease program award R01 TW05836 funded by the Fogarty International Center and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences to Uriel Kitron and Ricardo E. Gürtler, the Agencia Nacional de Promoción Científica y Técnica (Argentina), and University of Buenos Aires to Ricardo E. Gürtler. Ricardo E. Gürtler and María C. Cecere are members of Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas Researcher’s Career.

^* Address correspondence to Ricardo E. Gürtler, Laboratory of Eco-Epidemiology, Departamento de Ecología, Genética y Evolución, Ciudad Universitaria, C1428EHA Buenos Aires, Argentina. E-mail: gurtler{at}ege.fcen.uba.ar

Authors’ addresses: Marta V. Cardinal, Mónica B. Castañera, María C. Cecere, Leonardo A. Ceballos, Gonzalo M. Vazquez-Prokopec, and Ricardo E. Gürtler, Departamento de Ecología, Genética y Evolución, Ciudad Universitaria, C1428EHA, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Marta A. Lauricella, Instituto Nacional de Parasitología "Dr. Mario Fatala Chabén", Paseo Colón 568, 1063 Buenos Aires, Argentina. Uriel Kitron, College of Veterinary Medicine, Department of Pathobiology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2001 S. Lincoln Avenue, IL-61802.

Reprint request: Dr. Ricardo E. Gürtler, Laboratorio de Eco-Epidemiología, Depto. Ecología, Genética y Evolución, Ciudad Universitaria, C1428EHA, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

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