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Associations between monthly rainfall and mortality in cattle due to East Coast fever, anaplasmosis and babesiosis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 September 2020

Richard Chepkwony ,
Carolina Castagna ,
Ignas Heitkönig ,
Severine van Bommel  and
Frank van Langevelde Open the ORCID record for Frank van Langevelde [Opens in a new window]
Richard Chepkwony*
Affiliation:
Kenya Wildlife Service, P.O. Box 40241-00100, Nairobi, Kenya Wageningen University, Wildlife Ecology and Conservation Group, P.O. Box 47, 6700 AA, Wageningen, The Netherlands Wageningen University, Strategic Communications Group, P.O. Box 8130, 6700 EW, Wageningen, The Netherlands
Carolina Castagna
Affiliation:
Wageningen University, Wildlife Ecology and Conservation Group, P.O. Box 47, 6700 AA, Wageningen, The Netherlands
Ignas Heitkönig
Affiliation:
Wageningen University, Wildlife Ecology and Conservation Group, P.O. Box 47, 6700 AA, Wageningen, The Netherlands
Severine van Bommel
Affiliation:
Wageningen University, Strategic Communications Group, P.O. Box 8130, 6700 EW, Wageningen, The Netherlands University of Queensland, School of Agriculture and Food Sciences, Gatton, QLD4343, Australia
Frank van Langevelde
Affiliation:
Wageningen University, Wildlife Ecology and Conservation Group, P.O. Box 47, 6700 AA, Wageningen, The Netherlands School of Life Sciences, Westville Campus, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban4000, South Africa
*
Author for correspondence: Richard Chepkwony, E-mail: rchepkwony74@gmail.com
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Abstract

Weather conditions can impact infectious disease transmission, causing mortalities in humans, wild and domestic animals. Although rainfall in dry tropical regions is highly variable over the year, rainfall is thought to play an important role in the transmission of tick-borne diseases. Whether variation in rainfall affects disease-induced mortalities, is, however, poorly understood. Here, we use long-term data on monthly rainfall and Boran cattle mortality (1998–2017) to investigate associations between within-year variation in rainfall and cattle mortalities due to East Coast fever (ECF), anaplasmosis and babesiosis in Laikipia, Kenya, using ARIMAX modelling. Results show a negative correlation between monthly rainfall and cattle mortality for ECF and anaplasmosis, with a lag effect of 2 and 6 months, respectively. There was no association between babesiosis-induced mortalities and monthly rainfall. The results of this study suggest that control of the tick-borne diseases ECF and anaplasmosis to reduce mortalities should be intensified during rainy periods after the respective estimated time lags following dry periods.

Keywords

Animal diseasesindigenous cattletick-borne diseasestickstime series analysis
Type
Research Article
Information
Parasitology , Volume 147 , Issue 14 , December 2020 , pp. 1743 - 1751
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

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