http://idl-bnc.idrc.ca:80/dspace/handle/10625/35557 Tue, 18 Jun 2013 05:07:11 GMT 2013-06-18T05:07:11Z http://idl-bnc.idrc.ca:80/dspace/handle/10625/51022 Title: Final technical report : a Canadian community of practice in ecosystem approaches to health with a training and awards program for ecohealth research in international and development settings, January 2008 – June 2012 Authors: Webb, Jena; Saint‐Charles, Johanne; Parkes, Margot; Morrison, Karen; Lemire, Melanie; Woollard, Robert Abstract: Canada’s contribution to the emergence of Ecosystem Approaches to Human Health (Ecohealth) ‐ and application in the international and development context ‐ is entering a new phase. Researchers and institutions across the country have identified a need for consolidation and commitment to ensure long‐term development and capacity in the field. In response to this need we propose to establish a Canadian Community of Practice in Ecohealth (CoPEH‐Can2) that will promote and support research, education, policy and practice in ecosystem approaches to health. Initial objectives of the CoPEH‐Can are to jointly plan and deliver a course on the ecohealth approach for students and professionals doing international/development work; and to provide a forum for Canadians to consolidate and extend the ecohealth approach through collaboration, exchange, and scholarly attention to methodology, pedagogy and knowledge translation. The CoPEH‐Can will provide a pan‐Canadian platform to manage and deliver the Canadian Ecohealth Graduate Awards Program, previously hosted and administered by the International Development Research Center. Based on experience of the opportunities and challenges of establishing communities of practice elsewhere, we have designed the CoPEH‐Can to build progressively, through a nodal structure, strongly rooted in existing institutions that have demonstrated their capacity for ecohealth research and training in Canada and internationally. During the proposed 3‐year establishment phase, three regional nodes (Quebec/Maritimes, Ontario and BC/Prairies/Territories) would be administered by a University Consortium, comprising the Université du Québec à Montréal, University of Guelph and University of British Columbia. The CoPEH‐Can will be governed by a Coordinating Committee, comprising members of the three Consortium universities with input from the International Development Research Center (IDRC) Ecohealth Program Initiative, and Nodal Advisory Committees. During the establishment phase, a main activity of the CoPEH‐Can will be to collectively design and deliver a short‐course focused on Ecosystem Approaches to Human Health to provide training to qualified graduate awardees under the proposed Canadian Ecohealth Graduate Training Awards Program (a continuation of the IDRC Ecohealth Graduate Awards Program). The proposed 11 day short course will be run in 2008, 2009 and 2010 and hosting would rotate between the three Consortia universities. Consortium partners will seek to establish this short‐course as an accredited graduate course across the three universities, potentially complemented by a distance‐learning component. Oversight of the program design, delivery and evaluation will be through the CoPEH Coordinating Committee. Each cohort of the training program would include up to five students who have applied to and been selected by the CoPEH‐Can to receive bursaries for international field research. The Consortium will be responsible for the management and administration of the Canadian Ecohealth Graduate Training Awards Program. Sat, 01 Sep 2012 00:00:00 GMT http://idl-bnc.idrc.ca:80/dspace/handle/10625/51022 2012-09-01T00:00:00Z http://idl-bnc.idrc.ca:80/dspace/handle/10625/51013 Title: Final technical report for “Ecohealth Toolkit - Pilot for Teaching Manual”, August 2010 – April 2012 Authors: McCullagh, Suzanne; Morrison, Karen Sun, 01 Apr 2012 00:00:00 GMT http://idl-bnc.idrc.ca:80/dspace/handle/10625/51013 2012-04-01T00:00:00Z http://idl-bnc.idrc.ca:80/dspace/handle/10625/50957 Title: Origins of house reinfestation with Triatoma infestans after insecticide spraying in the Argentine Chaco using wing geometric morphometry Authors: Gaspe, M. Sol; Gurevitz, Juan M.; Gürtler, Ricardo E.; Dujardin, Jean-Pierre Abstract: Identifying the origins of insect vectors collected after community-wide residual insecticide applications 24 is a relevant challenge in the Gran Chaco region where the main vector of Chagas disease Triatoma infe- 25 stans usually reinfests human dwellings. Wing geometric morphometry was used to compare the right 26 wings of 63 males and 54 females collected at 4 months post-spraying (MPS) with those from 165 males 27 and 111 females collected before full-coverage spraying with pyrethroids in a well-defined rural area in 28 Northeastern Argentina. Male and female wing centroid size resulted significantly larger at 4 MPS than 29 before interventions, but no significant changes in shape were detected. Metric disparity (variance of 30 shape) varied significantly in males but not in females. Using shape variables, a relatively large fraction 31 of post-spraying males (70%) and females (54%) could not be differentiated from those collected at the 32 same source house or at the nearest infested house before interventions. Bugs collected at 4 and 33 8 MPS in a persistently infested house were mainly assigned to the source house. These results support 34 the hypothesis of persistent bug populations that survived the insecticide application at local spatial 35 scales, and are consistent with the occurrence of vector control failures most likely related to moderate 36 pyrethroid resistance. Wing geometric morphometry is a useful tool for identifying sources of reinfesta- 37 tion, but it is limited by the spatial structure found in the reference populations. Combined with field and 38 genetic data, this approach may contribute to the understanding of the reinfestation process and 39 improvement of vector control strategies. Description: Article in press Mon, 25 Mar 2013 00:00:00 GMT http://idl-bnc.idrc.ca:80/dspace/handle/10625/50957 2013-03-25T00:00:00Z http://idl-bnc.idrc.ca:80/dspace/handle/10625/50956 Title: Spatial heterogeneity and risk maps of community infestation by Triatoma infestans in rural Northwestern Argentina Authors: Vazquez-Prokopec, Gonzalo M.; Spillmann, Cynthia; Zaidenberg, Mario; Gürtler, Ricardo E.; Kitron, Uriel Abstract: Background: Fifty years of residual insecticide spraying to control Triatoma infestans in the Gran Chaco region of northern Argentina, Paraguay and Bolivia shows that vertically coordinated interventions aiming at full coverage have limited effects and are unsustainable. We quantified the spatial distribution of T. infestans domestic infestation at the district level, identified environmental factors associated with high infestation and then explored the usefulness of risk maps for the spatial stratification of interventions. Methods and Findings: We performed spatial analyses of house infestation data collected by the National Chagas Service in Moreno Department, northern Argentina (1999–2002). Clusters of high domestic infestation occurred in the southwestern extreme of the district. A multi-model selection approach showed that domestic infestation clustered in areas of low elevation, with few farmlands, high density of rural houses, high mean maximum land surface temperature, large NDVI, and high percentage of degraded and deforested lands. The best model classified 98.4% of the communities in the training dataset (sensitivity, 93.3%; specificity, 95.4%). The risk map evidenced that the high-risk area only encompassed 16% of the district. By building a network-based transportation model we assessed the operational costs of spatially contiguous and spatially targeted interventions. Targeting clusters of high infestation would have reached ,80% of all communities slated for full-coverage insecticide spraying, reducing in half the total time and economic cost incurred by a spatially contiguous strategy. Conclusions and Significance: In disperse rural areas where control programs can accomplish limited coverage, consideration of infestation hot spots can contribute to the design and execution of cost-effective interventions against Chagas disease vectors. If field validated, targeted vertical control in high risk areas and horizontal control in medium to low risk areas may provide both a logistically and economically feasible alternative to blanket vertical insecticide spraying when resources are limited. Tue, 14 Aug 2012 00:00:00 GMT http://idl-bnc.idrc.ca:80/dspace/handle/10625/50956 2012-08-14T00:00:00Z http://idl-bnc.idrc.ca:80/dspace/handle/10625/50955 Title: Sylvatic transmission cycle of Trypanosoma cruzi in a rural area in the humid Chaco of Argentina Authors: Alvarado-Otegui, J.A.; Ceballos, L.A.; Orozco, M.M.; Enriquez, G.F.; Cardinal, M.V. Abstract: Little is known about the sylvatic transmission cycle of Trypanosoma cruzi in the Gran Chaco ecoregion. We conducted surveys to identify the main sylvatic hosts of T. cruzi, parasite discrete typing units and vector species involved in Pampa del Indio, a rural area in the humid Argentinean Chaco. A total of 44 mammals from 14 species were captured and examined for infection by xenodiagnosis and polymerase chain reaction amplification of the hyper-variable region of kinetoplast DNA minicircles of T. cruzi (kDNAPCR). Ten (22.7%) mammals were positive by xenodiagnosis or kDNA-PCR. Four of 11 (36%) Didelphis albiventris (white-eared opossums) and six of nine (67%) Dasypus novemcinctus (nine-banded armadillos) were positive by xenodiagnosis and or kDNA-PCR. Rodents, other armadillo species, felids, crab-eating raccoons, hares and rabbits were not infected. Positive animals were highly infectious to the bugs that fed upon them as determined by xenodiagnosis. All positive opossums were infected with T. cruzi I and all positive nine-banded armadillos with T. cruzi III. Extensive searches in sylvatic habitats using 718 Noireau trap-nights only yielded Triatoma sordida whereas no bug was collected in 26 light-trap nights. Four armadillos or opossums fitted with a spool-and-line device were successfully tracked to their refuges; only one Panstrongylus geniculatus was found in an armadillo burrow. No sylvatic triatomine was infected with T. cruzi by microscopical examination or kDNA-PCR. Our results indicate that two independent sylvatic transmission cycles of T. cruzi occur in the humid Chaco. The putative vectors of both cycles need to be identified conclusively. Description: Article in press Tue, 26 Jun 2012 00:00:00 GMT http://idl-bnc.idrc.ca:80/dspace/handle/10625/50955 2012-06-26T00:00:00Z