School of Natural Sciences, Bangor University, Wales, LL57 2DG, United Kingdom.
Ecol Appl. 2021 Jun;31(4):e02330. doi: 10.1002/eap.2330. Epub 2021 Apr 21.
Snakebite envenoming is a major neglected tropical health issue. The high incidence of snakebites in tropical rural communities suggests that venomous snakes and people are often in proximity but quantitative evidence is lacking. I used radio-telemetry on a population of Russell's vipers (Daboia russelii), one of the most medically important snakes in the world, to quantify proximity between this venomous snake and people and estimate susceptibility to snakebite envenoming in India. I observed people ≤50 m of a radio-equipped viper in ~17% of 2,066 snake relocations. People were more frequently observed in proximity to Russell's vipers in January and July compared to March, but all other contrasts were statistically similar. This pattern indicates that snakebite incidence, which peaks in summer in the study area, is not particularly linked to the encounter frequency between people and vipers. However, consistent with epidemiological data plantation workers were the most at-risk part of the population. By integrating information about the locations of humans and snakes in space and time, this pioneering research highlights the need to include snake ecology into the study of the human-venomous-snake conflict, and provides a model approach to help mitigate the burden caused by venomous snakes in the rural Tropics.
蛇伤中毒是一个被严重忽视的热带健康问题。在热带农村社区，蛇伤的高发率表明毒蛇和人经常近距离接触，但缺乏定量证据。我使用无线电遥测技术对印度最具医学重要性的蛇之一罗素蝰蛇（Daboia russelii）进行了研究，以量化这种毒蛇与人之间的接近程度，并估计印度的蛇伤中毒易感性。我观察到在 2066 次蛇类重新安置中，有 17%的人距离配备无线电设备的毒蛇在 50 米以内。与 3 月相比，1 月和 7 月人们更频繁地接近罗素蝰蛇，但其他所有对比在统计学上都是相似的。这一模式表明，在研究区域，蛇伤发病率在夏季达到峰值，但与人类和毒蛇之间的遭遇频率并没有特别联系。然而，与流行病学数据一致的是，种植园工人是最容易受到威胁的人群。通过整合人类和蛇在空间和时间上的位置信息，这项开创性的研究强调了将蛇类生态学纳入人类与毒蛇冲突研究的必要性，并提供了一种模型方法来帮助减轻农村热带地区毒蛇造成的负担。
