A influência da estrutura da paisagem sobre a incidência de acidentes ofídicos na Amazônia Central: um estudo em duas escalas espaciais

Abstract

Landscape changes like habitat loss and fragmentation have lasting effects on biodiversity, and these changes may also interfere on key ecological processes. Landscape conversion of forested areas into croplands or urbanized areas for example, may increase human-snake interactions, increasing the risk of snakebite incidents. We investigated how landscape composition and configuration influence snakebite incidence in the Central Amazon. We analyzed two spatial scales: 1) the Manaus Metropolitan Region (Região Metropolitana de Manaus - RMM), using data from the Notifiable Diseases Information System (Sistema de Informação de Agravos de Notificação - SINAN) and MapBiomas landcover data (2008-2019), and 2) the urban area of Manaus, using medical records (2010-2023) from the Tropical Medicine Foundation and MapBiomas land-cover data (2010, 2020). We calculated metrics that describe different aspects of landscape structure at both spatial scales (within municipalities’ in the RMM and within neighborhoods in the city of Manaus). In the RMM, 9.046 snakebites were recorded, of which 4.082 (approximately 45%) of these were confidently classified as accidents caused by the common lancehead (Bothrops atrox) or other bothropic accidents, and were therefore included in the analyses. A significant association was found between snakebite incidence and landscape forest proportion for total snake-bite events, but not for exclusive bothropic accidents. At the Manaus scale, we reported 254 botropic accident cases within the urban zone. The highest incidence (cases/10,000 inhabitants) involving B. atrox was associated with neighborhoods exhibiting higher forest cover and greater urban-forest edge amount. Similarly, botropic accident incidence was also positively associated with pasture cover, including higher accident incidence in neighborhoods with more pasture cover and with higher edge ammount. These results highlight the importance of effective urban planning and land zoning strategies that consider landscape composition and landscape configuration to prevent snakebites involving B. atrox and other venomous snakes in the Amazon region.