title: Is there an association between dryland salinity and Ross River virus disease in southwestern Australia?
abstract: Land use change has the potential to cause severe ecosystem degradation and drive changes in disease transmission and emergence. Broadscale clearing of native vegetation for agriculture in southwestern Australia has resulted in severe ecosystem degradation, which has been compounded by the subsequent development of large areas of dryland salinity. The mosquito-borne disease, Ross River virus (RRV), has been noted as a potential adverse human health outcome in these salinity affected regions. The association between dryland salinity and RRV disease was therefore tested by undertaking a spatial analysis of disease notification records using standard and Bayesian techniques. To overcome inherent limitations with notification data, serological RRV antibody prevalence was also investigated. Neither method revealed a significant association with dryland salinity, however, the spatial scale imposed limited the sensitivity of both studies. Thus, further multidisciplinary studies are required to overcome these limitations and advance understanding of this ecosystem health issue, particularly using variables that can be investigated on a finer scale.
authors.affiliation: School of Population Health, M431, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, Western Australia, 6009, Australia. andrew.jardine@uwa.edu.au
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Jardine
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Speldewinde
authors.forename: Michael D A
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Lindsay
authors.forename: Angus
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cook
authors.forename: Cheryl A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Johansen
authors.forename: Philip
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Weinstein
mesh_terms: D018354:Alphavirus Infections / Q000453:epidemiology*; D001315:Australia / Q000453:epidemiology; D001499:Bayes Theorem; D004777:Environment; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D012398:Ross River virus; D016036:Seroepidemiologic Studies; D012965:Sodium Chloride / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D012965:Sodium Chloride