Estimating geographic patterns of ophidism risk in Ecuador

AbstractThe species richness of venomous snakes in Ecuador (~39 species) is among the highest in the world. However, until now no information exists regarding geographic patterns of ophidism. In this study, we present a detailed spatial snakebite risk map which was built by stacking weighted ecological niche models of the 19 snake species responsible for the majority of Ecuador’s envenomation cases. Our weights were based on the proportion of cases reported for each species on local epidemiological studies. Based on our analyses, we identify 184 densely populated rural communities with high snakebite risk that should be monitored by health organizations. We also identified three densely populated rural locations (Palora Metzera, Sangay and Shell) that may require special attention because they had much higher snakebite risk values than the rest.