title: On palms, bugs, and Chagas disease in the Americas.
abstract: Palms are ubiquitous across Neotropical landscapes, from pristine forests or savannahs to large cities. Although palms provide useful ecosystem services, they also offer suitable habitat for triatomines and for Trypanosoma cruzi mammalian hosts. Wild triatomines often invade houses by flying from nearby palms, potentially leading to new cases of human Chagas disease. Understanding and predicting triatomine-palm associations and palm infestation probabilities is important for enhancing Chagas disease prevention in areas where palm-associated vectors transmit T. cruzi. We present a comprehensive overview of palm infestation by triatomines in the Americas, combining a thorough reanalysis of our published and unpublished records with an in-depth review of the literature. We use site-occupancy modeling (SOM) to examine infestation in 3590 palms sampled with non-destructive methods, and standard statistics to describe and compare infestation in 2940 palms sampled by felling-and-dissection. Thirty-eight palm species (18 genera) have been reported to be infested by ∼39 triatomine species (10 genera) from the USA to Argentina. Overall infestation varied from 49.1-55.3% (SOM) to 62.6-66.1% (dissection), with important heterogeneities among sub-regions and particularly among palm species. Large palms with complex crowns (e.g., Attalea butyracea, Acrocomia aculeata) and some medium-crowned palms (e.g., Copernicia, Butia) are often infested; in slender, small-crowned palms (e.g., Euterpe) triatomines associate with vertebrate nests. Palm infestation tends to be higher in rural settings, but urban palms can also be infested. Most Rhodnius species are probably true palm specialists, whereas Psammolestes, Eratyrus, Cavernicola, Panstrongylus, Triatoma, Alberprosenia, and some Bolboderini seem to use palms opportunistically. Palms provide extensive habitat for enzootic T. cruzi cycles and a critical link between wild cycles and transmission to humans. Unless effective means to reduce contact between people and palm-living triatomines are devised, palms will contribute to maintaining long-term and widespread, albeit possibly low-intensity, transmission of human Chagas disease.
authors.affiliation: Laboratório de Ecologia de Doenças Transmissíveis na Amazônia, Instituto Leônidas e Maria Deane - Fiocruz, Rua Teresina 476, Manaus 69057-070, Amazonas, Brazil; Laboratório de Triatomíneos e Epidemiologia da Doença de Chagas, Centro de Pesquisa René Rachou - Fiocruz, Av. Augusto de Lima 1715, Belo Horizonte 30190-002, Minas Gerais, Brazil. Electronic address: fernando.abad@cpqrr.fiocruz.br.
authors.forename: Fernando
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Abad-Franch
authors.affiliation: Laboratório de Ecoepidemiologia da Doença de Chagas, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz - Fiocruz, Av. Brasil 4365, Rio de Janeiro 21045-900, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
authors.forename: Marli M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Lima
authors.affiliation: Laboratório de Ecoepidemiologia da Doença de Chagas, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz - Fiocruz, Av. Brasil 4365, Rio de Janeiro 21045-900, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
authors.forename: Otília
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Sarquis
authors.affiliation: Laboratório de Parasitologia Médica e Biologia de Vetores, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de Brasília, Asa Norte, Brasília 70904-970, Distrito Federal, Brazil.
authors.forename: Rodrigo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gurgel-Gonçalves
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Salud Global de Barcelona - ISGlobal, c/ Rosselló 132, 5° 2ª, 08036 Barcelona, Catalunya, Spain.
authors.forename: María
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sánchez-Martín
authors.affiliation: Insituto Conmemorativo Gorgas de Estudios de la Salud, Av. Justo Arosemena y Calle 32, Panamá 0816-02593, Panama.
authors.forename: José
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Calzada
authors.affiliation: Insituto Conmemorativo Gorgas de Estudios de la Salud, Av. Justo Arosemena y Calle 32, Panamá 0816-02593, Panama.
authors.forename: Azael
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Saldaña
authors.affiliation: Laboratório de Epidemiologia e Sistemática Molecular, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz - Fiocruz, Av. Brasil 4365, Rio de Janeiro 21045-900, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
authors.forename: Fernando A
authors.initials: FA
authors.lastname: Monteiro
authors.affiliation: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Road, Atlanta, GA 30329-4027, USA.
authors.forename: Francisco S
authors.initials: FS
authors.lastname: Palomeque
authors.affiliation: Laboratório de Doença de Chagas, Seção de Parasitologia, Instituto Evandro Chagas - SVS/MS, Rodovia BR 316 km 7 s/n, 67030-000 Ananindeua, Pará, Brazil.
authors.forename: Walter S
authors.initials: WS
authors.lastname: Santos
authors.affiliation: Centro de Investigaciones en Enfermedades Tropicales - CINTROP, Universidad Industrial de Santander, Calle 9 no. 27, Piedecuesta 680002, Santander, Colombia.
authors.forename: Victor M
authors.initials: VM
authors.lastname: Angulo
authors.affiliation: Centro de Investigaciones en Enfermedades Tropicales - CINTROP, Universidad Industrial de Santander, Calle 9 no. 27, Piedecuesta 680002, Santander, Colombia.
authors.forename: Lyda
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Esteban
authors.affiliation: Laboratório de Triatomíneos e Epidemiologia da Doença de Chagas, Centro de Pesquisa René Rachou - Fiocruz, Av. Augusto de Lima 1715, Belo Horizonte 30190-002, Minas Gerais, Brazil.
authors.forename: Fernando B S
authors.initials: FB
authors.lastname: Dias
authors.affiliation: Laboratório de Triatomíneos e Epidemiologia da Doença de Chagas, Centro de Pesquisa René Rachou - Fiocruz, Av. Augusto de Lima 1715, Belo Horizonte 30190-002, Minas Gerais, Brazil.
authors.forename: Liléia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Diotaiuti
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio de Artrópodos, Facultad de Ciencia Exactas y Naturales, Universidad Nacional del Nordeste, Av. Libertad 5470, CP 3400 Corrientes, Argentina.
authors.forename: María Esther
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Bar
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA.
authors.forename: Nicole L
authors.initials: NL
authors.lastname: Gottdenker
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D028023:Arecaceae / Q000469:parasitology*; D014355:Chagas Disease / Q000469:parasitology* / Q000635:transmission*; D004463:Ecology; D017753:Ecosystem; D006801:Humans; D007303:Insect Vectors; D009656:North America; D010203:Panstrongylus / Q000469:parasitology*; D012239:Rhodnius / Q000469:parasitology*; D013020:South America; D014224:Triatoma / Q000469:parasitology*; D014349:Trypanosoma cruzi / Q000469:parasitology*
keywords: Arecaceae; Chagas disease; Palms; Rhodnius; Site-occupancy; Triatominae; Vector ecology