| خلاصه مقاله | Background: In 2022, WHO reported 249 million new cases of malaria globally.
Despite efforts to control malaria in Iran, a resurgence occurred in 2023, attributed to
various factors. Anopheles stephensi Liston, the primary malaria vector in southern Iran,
poses a significant threat to malaria control in Asia and Africa. Climate change's impact
on disease transmission, particularly malaria, underscores the importance of considering
it in control strategies. Efforts to predict the spread of malaria vectors using
meteorological data and GIS analysis are crucial for planning control interventions.
Ecological niche modelling and the maximum entropy model play vital roles in
forecasting malaria vectors' distribution and environmental suitability, such as An.
stephensi. This study aimed to gather data on the distribution of An. stephensi in
Method This study utilized field studies and database searches to collect An. stephensi
distribution data in Hormozgan Province. Environmental and bioclimatic data for
current and future years were obtained from reputable sources, and GIS software was
used to extract province-specific information. Ecological niche modeling was conducted
using MaxEnt software to evaluate potential changes in species distribution, with model
performance assessed using Receiver-Operating Characteristic analysis. The resulting
habitat suitability model was produced using ArcGIS.
Result: The studies conducted over the last three decades in Hormozgan Province
identified 101 locations where An. stephensi was reported. Geographic coordinates were
prepared and used to map the species distribution. The MaxEnt model output maps
show suitable ecological niches for An. stephensi at present and in the future under
different greenhouse gas emission scenarios. The model's validation using the Receiver
Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve indicates its strong performance and accuracy,
with Area Under the Curve (AUC) values ranging from 0.81 to 0.85 for training data
and 0.62 to 0.72 for test data, affirming the model's validity.
Conclusion: The study emphasizes the significance of biogeography and biogeology in
predicting growth conditions, current and future distribution, and changes in biological
range. The MaxEnt analysis suggests that the distribution area of An. stephensi is
expected to change in the coming years under different climatic scenarios. The study
identifies influential environmental variables in the model, such as isothermality and
temperature, and highlights their impact on the species' distribution. The environmental
variables, such as average precipitation in the driest season, were found to have the most
significant impact on the model. The study underscores the importance of understanding
the ecological differences among species and the types of variables used in the analysis |