Understanding the transmission of bacterial agents of sapronotic diseases using an ecosystem-based approach: A first spatially realistic metacommunity model
Fig 2
Illustration of different areas favorable for the development of Mycobacterium ulcerans, responsible for causing Buruli ulcer, and representative of local patches or subcommunities in the mathematical model developed in this paper.
Upper left: lower river area close to the Mana river, French Guiana, South America (photo credit: J-FG, 2021); lower left: upper area of the Sinnamary river, French Guiana (photo credit: MEB, 2021); upper right: middle area of the Nyong river, central Cameroon, Africa (photo credit: J-FG, 2014); lower right: a small stream habitat in Benin, western Africa (photo credit: MEB, 2016). All these sites harbor a diverse community of species, including free-living mycobacteria, freshwater fish and macroinvertebrate species, fish-associated mycobacteria and macroinvertebrate-associated mycobacteria. The different patches from a same catchment area can be more or less connected to each other, depending on geographical distance, according to the schematic illustration in Fig 1.