Prioritization of areas for anthrax control in the province of La Pampa based on ecological factors
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14409/favet.2025.1.e0053Keywords:
Bacillus anthracis, spatial modeling, environmental risk, vaccination prioritization, semiarid regionAbstract
Anthrax, caused by Bacillus anthracis, is a highly lethal zoonosis with global distribution, sustained by the environmental persistence of bacterial spores. This study aims to identify environmental drivers of anthrax outbreaks reported between 2008 and 2025 in La Pampa Province, Argentina, to spatially prioritize zones for disease control interventions. Fifty-nine outbreak locations were georeferenced and analyzed using five risk-related variables: annual soil moisture, actual evapotranspiration, pre-outbreak drought index, surface runoff features, and grazing pressure. Proportion tests (Z-test) revealed that 81% of outbreaks occurred on watershed limits, in areas with annual soil moisture ≥ 2.8 kg/m² and evapotranspiration ≥ 600 mm/year. Most outbreaks coincided with wet or normal moisture periods and occurred under average or below-average livestock stocking rate. An ecological corridor of 7.9 million hectares was delineated as a high-risk zone, with 3.3 million hectares prioritized due to their positioning along watershed divides. Mandatory vaccination is recommended for farms with prior outbreaks and for those situated in hydrologically and climatically defined risk areas.
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