Abstract Climate and agricultural land-use change has increased the likelihood of infectious disease emergence and transmissions, but these drivers are often examined separately as combined effects ...are ignored. Further, seldom are the influence of climate and agricultural land use on emerging infectious diseases examined in a spatially explicit way at regional scales. Our objective in this study was to spatially examine the climate, agriculture, and socio-demographic factors related to agro-pastoralism, and especially the combined effects of these variables that can influence the prevalence of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) in dromedary camels across northern Kenya. Our research questions focused on: (1) How MERS-CoV in dromedary camels has varied across geographic regions of northern Kenya, and (2) what climate, agriculture, and socio-demographic factors of agro-pastoralism were spatially related to the geographic variation of MERS-CoV cases in dromedary camels. To answer our questions, we analyzed the spatial distribution of historical cases based on serological evidence of MERS-CoV at the county level and applied spatial statistical analysis to examine the spatial relationships of the MERS-CoV cases between 2016 and 2018 to climate, agriculture, and socio-demographic factors of agro-pastoralism. Regional differences in MERS-CoV cases were spatially correlated with both social and environmental factors, and particularly ethno-religious camel practices, which highlight the complexity in the distribution of MERS-CoV in dromedary camels across Kenya.
Full text
Available for:
EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OBVAL, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
Human-induced climate change significantly alters the spatiotemporal characteristics of climate zones, which drives agricultural land use and ecosystem change. However, the detectability of shifting ...climate zones and the rate and time of the changes has yet to be adequately addressed at the regional-to-local scale. We mapped and analyzed changes to temperature and precipitation across Kenya during the past four decades, and linked those changes to shifts in the geographic distribution and arrangement of climate zones at regional scales. We observed an approximate 1 °C increase in average annual temperature over the 40-year period. A total of 76,346 km
2
shifted from cooler to hotter zones, while 1298 km
2
shifted from hotter to cooler zones. Tropical climate regions expanded from 91 to 93%, with over 13,000 km
2
shifting from alpine and temperate to tropical regions. Average annual precipitation demonstrated little or no trend, but substantial spatial changes were observed. A total of 136,129 km
2
shifted from wetter to drier zones, while 23,317 km
2
shifted from drier to wetter zones. Arid climate regions expanded from 72 to 81%, a roughly 50,000 km
2
shift from humid and semi-humid-to-semi-arid to arid regions. Overall, there was a 207,557 km
2
shift in temperature and precipitation zones. As the climate zones predominately shift toward hotter and drier conditions, climatic diversity will decline, and in turn, ecosystem diversity and the ecosystem goods and services to society will decline. The changes also have broader global implications in terms of their contribution to global drylands as well as influencing earth system cycles. Overall, such information can better inform the Kenyan National Climate Change Response Strategy and be used to reach the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Full text
Available for:
EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
Contagious caprine pleuropneumonia (CCPP) caused by Mycoplasma capricolum subsp. capripneumoniae is a severe epidemic affecting mainly domestic Caprinae species but also affects wild Caprinae ...species. M. capricolum subsp. capripneumoniae belongs to the "Mycoplasma mycoides cluster." The disease features prominently in East Africa, in particular Kenya, Tanzania, and Ethiopia. CCPP also endangers wildlife and thus affects not only basic nutritional resources of large populations but also expensively built-up game resorts in affected countries. Here, we report the complete sequences of two M. capricolum subsp. capripneumoniae strains: the type strain F38 and strain ILRI181 isolated druing a recent outbreak in Kenya. Both genomes have a G+C content of 24% with sizes of 1,016,760 bp and 1,017,183 bp for strains F38 and ILRI181, respectively.
PDF