Figures
Reconstruction of Inca granary (qollqa) at Cotapachi, Bolivia.
Triatomine bugs are the vectors of Trypanosoma cruzi, the cause of Chagas disease. Most triatomines live in the wild, but some epidemiologically important species have adapted to living in and around human habitations. Human activities, such as stockpiling of grain, are thought to have encouraged vector domiciliation. The image is from a site near Cochabamba, which was a large Inca agricultural center and is still a focus of T. cruzi transmission by Triatoma infestans. The study used phylogenetic analysis of T. cruzi to show that human activities probably also promoted the evolution of hybrid lineages of the parasite (see Lewis et al., doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0001363).
Image Credit: Michael Lewis (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine)
Citation: (2011) PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases Issue Image | Vol. 5(10) October 2011. PLoS Negl Trop Dis 5(10): ev05.i10. https://doi.org/10.1371/image.pntd.v05.i10
Published: October 25, 2011
Copyright: © 2011 Lewis et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Triatomine bugs are the vectors of Trypanosoma cruzi, the cause of Chagas disease. Most triatomines live in the wild, but some epidemiologically important species have adapted to living in and around human habitations. Human activities, such as stockpiling of grain, are thought to have encouraged vector domiciliation. The image is from a site near Cochabamba, which was a large Inca agricultural center and is still a focus of T. cruzi transmission by Triatoma infestans. The study used phylogenetic analysis of T. cruzi to show that human activities probably also promoted the evolution of hybrid lineages of the parasite (see Lewis et al., doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0001363).
Image Credit: Michael Lewis (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine)