title: Seasonal relationship between normalized difference vegetation index and abundance of the Phlebotomus kala-azar vector in an endemic focus in Bihar, India.
abstract: Remote sensing was applied for the collection of spatio-temporal data to increase our understanding of the potential distribution of the kala-azar vector Phlebotomus argentipes in endemic areas of the Vaishali district of Bihar, India. We produced monthly distribution maps of the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) based on data from the thematic mapper (TM) sensor onboard the Landsat-5 satellite. Minimum, maximum and mean NDVI values were computed for each month and compared with the concurrent incidence of kala-azar and the vector density. Maximum and mean NDVI values (R2 = 0.55 and R2 = 0.60, respectively), as well as the season likelihood ratio (X2 = 17.51; P <0.001), were found to be strongly associated with kala-azar, while the correlation with between minimum NDVI values and kala-azar was weak (R2 = 0.25). Additionally, a strong association was found between the mean and maximum NDVI values with seasonal vector abundance (R2 = 0.60 and R2 = 0.55, respectively) but there was only a marginal association between minimum NDVI value and the spatial distribution of kala-azar vis-à-vis P. argentipes density.
authors.affiliation: Department of Vector Biology and Control, Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Agamkuan, Patna-800007, Bihar, India.
authors.forename: Gouri S
authors.initials: GS
authors.lastname: Bhunia
authors.forename: Shreekant
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kesari
authors.forename: Nandini
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Chatterjee
authors.forename: Rakesh
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Mandal
authors.forename: Vijay
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.forename: Pradeep
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Das
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000818:Animals; D002648:Child; D017753:Ecosystem; D019353:Endemic Diseases / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D040362:Geographic Information Systems; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007194:India / Q000453:epidemiology; D007303:Insect Vectors / Q000469:parasitology*; D007893:Leishmania donovani / Q000469:parasitology; D007898:Leishmaniasis, Visceral / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000635:transmission; D008297:Male; D010691:Phlebotomus / Q000469:parasitology*; D015995:Prevalence; D058998:Remote Sensing Technology / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D012621:Seasons; D017678:Sex Distribution; D013029:Space-Time Clustering