Association between the swine production areas and the human population in Pinar del Rio province, Cuba

Research Article

International Journal of One Health, 3: 36-41

https://doi.org/10.14202/IJOH.2017.36-41

Osvaldo Fonseca¹, Kleber Regis Santoro², Pastor Alfonso¹, Joel Ayala¹, Maria Antonia Abeledo¹, Octavio Fernandez¹, Yosdany Centelles¹, Damarys de las Nieves Montano¹, and Maria Irian Percedo¹

1. Epidemiology Group, Department of Microbiology-Epidemiology, National Center for Animal and Plant Health (OIE Collaborating Center for Disaster Risk Reduction in Animal Health), Carretera de Jamaica y Autopista Nacional, San Jose de las Lajas, CP 32700, Mayabeque, Cuba.
2. Postgraduate Program in Biometrics and Applied Statistics (PPGBEA), Federal Rural University of Pernambuco (UFRPE), Rua Manuel de Medeiros, s/n - Dois Irmaos, Recife, PE 52171-900, Brazil.

Background and Aim: The aim of this study was to demonstrate the association between high human population density and high pig production in the province of Pinar del Rio, Cuba.

Materials and Methods: Records on pig movements at the district level in Pinar del Rio province from July 2010 to December 2012 were used in the study. A network analysis was carried out considering districts, as nodes, and movements of pigs between them represented the edges. The in-degree parameter was calculated using R 3.1.3 software. Graphical representation of the network was done with Gephi 0.8.2, and ArcGIS 10.2. was used for the spatial analysis to detect clusters by the Getis-Ord Gi* method and visualize maps as well.

Results: Significant spatial clusters of high values (hot spots) and low values (cold spots) of in-degree were identified. A cluster of high values was located in the central area of the province, and a cluster of low values involving municipalities of the Western zone was detected. Logistic regression demonstrated that a higher human population density per district was associated (odds ratio=16.020, 95% confidence interval: 1.692-151.682, p=0.016) with areas of high pork production.

Conclusion: Hot spot of swine production in Pinar del Rio is associated with human densely populated districts, which may suppose a risk of spillover of pathogens able to infect animals and humans. These results can be considered in strategy planning in terms of pork production increases and improvements of sanitary, commercial, and economic policies by decision-makers. Keywords: cluster, Getis-Ord, logistic regression, network analysis, swine.

Keywords: cluster, Getis-Ord, logistic regression, network analysis, swine.

How to cite this article: Fonseca O, Santoro KR, Alfonso P, Ayala J, Abeledo MA, Fernandez O, Centelles Y, Montano DN, Percedo MI. Association between the swine production areas and the human population in Pinar del Rio province, Cuba. Int J One Health 2017;3:36-41.

Received: 22-05-2017 Accepted: 24-06-2017 Published online: 18-07-2017

Corresponding author: Osvaldo Fonseca E-mail: osvaldo820601@gmail.com

DOI: 10.14202/IJOH.2017.36-41

Copyright: Fonseca, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.