The impact of temperature on canine Chagas disease transmission risk: A modeling study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Canine Chagas disease is a vector-borne parasitic disease caused by Trypanosoma cruzi. T. cruzi is transmitted by triatomine bugs (a.k.a. kissing bugs), an ectothermic host species. Understanding how temperature induces changes in vector traits such as fecundity, egg hatching, molting, and activity frequency is essential for developing predictive models for Chagas disease transmission.

Methods

A mechanistic model based on a Ross-MacDonald framework was developed to capture the temperature-dependent dynamics of T. cruzi transmission. Using empirical data on the impact of temperature on triatomine bugs' life traits, temperature-sensitive parameters were estimated using Bayesian inference approach. These parameters were used to compute a thermal suitability metric, S

SUBMITTER: Fiatsonu E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12419651 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature