The association between land use and land cover changes between 1979-2004 in a 2.26-million-hectare area
south of the Gran Chaco region and
Trypanosoma cruzi
infection in rural communities was analysed. The extent of
cultural land, open and closed forests and shrubland up to 3,000 m around rural communities in the north, northwest
and west of the province of Córdoba was estimated using Landsat satellite imagery. The
T. cruzi prevalence was
estimated with a cross-sectional serological survey conducted in the rural communities. The land cover showed the
same patterns in the 1979, 1999 and 2004 satellite imagery in both the northwest and west regions, with shrinking
regions of cultured land and expanding closed forests away from the community. The closed forests and agricultural
land coverage in the north region showed the same trend as in the northwest and west regions in 1979 but not in
1999 or 2004. In the latter two years, the coverage remote from the communities was either constant or changed in
opposite ways from that of the northwest and west regions. The changes in closed forests and cultured vegetation
alone did not have a significant, direct relationship with the occurrence of rural communities with at least one person
infected by
T. cruzi. This study suggests that the overall decrease in the prevalence of
T. cruzi is a consequence
of a combined effect of vector control activities and changes in land use and land cover.
