Abstract

Schistosomiasis is a snail-borne parasitic disease that ranks among the most important water-based diseases of humans in developing countries. Increased prevalence and spread of human schistosomiasis to non-endemic areas has been consistently linked with water resource management related to agricultural expansion. However, the role of agrochemical pollution in human schistosome transmission remains unexplored, despite strong evidence of agrochemicals increasing snail-borne diseases of wildlife and a projected 2- to 5-fold increase in global agrochemical use by 2050. Using a field mesocosm experiment, we show that environmentally relevant concentrations of fertilizer, a herbicide, and an insecticide, individually and as mixtures, increase densities of schistosome-infected snails by increasing the algae snails eat and decreasing densities of snail predators. Epidemiological models indicate that these agrochemical effects can increase transmission of schistosomes. Identifying agricultural practices or agrochemicals that minimize disease risk will be critical to meeting growing food demands while improving human wellbeing.

Details

Title
Agrochemicals increase risk of human schistosomiasis by supporting higher densities of intermediate hosts
Author
Halstead, Neal T 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Hoover, Christopher M 2 ; Arakala, Arathi 3 ; Civitello, David J 4 ; De Leo, Giulio A 5   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Gambhir, Manoj 6 ; Johnson, Steve A 7 ; Jouanard, Nicolas 8 ; Loerns, Kristin A 9 ; McMahon, Taegan A 10 ; Ndione, Raphael A 8 ; Nguyen, Karena 9 ; Raffel, Thomas R 11 ; Remais, Justin V 2 ; Riveau, Gilles 12 ; Sokolow, Susanne H 5 ; Rohr, Jason R 9 

 Department of Integrative Biology, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA; Wildlands Conservation, Inc., Tampa, FL, USA 
 Division of Environmental Health Sciences, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA 
 Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia; Department of Mathematical Sciences, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia 
 Department of Biology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA 
 Hopkins Marine Station, Stanford University, Pacific Grove, CA, USA; Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA 
 Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia; IBM Research Australia, Global Services Australia Pvt. Ltd., Southbank, Australia 
 Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA 
 Centre de Recherche Biomédicale Espoir pour la Santé, Saint-Louis, Senegal 
 Department of Integrative Biology, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA 
10  Department of Biology, University of Tampa, Tampa, FL, USA 
11  Department of Biological Sciences, Oakland University, Rochester, MI, USA 
12  Centre de Recherche Biomédicale Espoir pour la Santé, Saint-Louis, Senegal; CIIL – Institut Pasteur de Lille, Lille, France 
Pages
1-10
Publication year
2018
Publication date
Feb 2018
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
e-ISSN
20411723
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2008352371
Copyright
© 2018. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.