Analysis of the Effects of Hydrometeorological Conditions on Flea Indices of Two Rodent Species in Inner Mongolia.

Climate change has modified hydrometeorological patterns, influencing plague transmission risks in Inner Mongolia. Using 2013-2021 plague surveillance data from 12 regions in Inner Mongolia, we assessed drought and wet conditions' effects on flea parasitism in two key rodents: Mongolian gerbil (Meriones unguiculatus) and Daurian ground squirrel (Spermophilus dauricus). Extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost) modeling revealed the Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI), maximum ground surface temperature, average relative humidity, average sunshine duration, and maximum wind speed collectively explained 52.60% of generalized flea index variation (SPEI contribution: 14.13%). Distributed lag non-linear model (DLNM) analysis revealed that drought conditions cumulatively increased generalized flea indices, particularly moderate drought (SPEI = -1.8), which showed a significant lagged effect on generalized flea indices after 3 months (RR = 2.76, 95% CI: 1.78-4.27). Conversely, the cumulative effects of wet conditions were detrimental to the increase in generalized flea indices. In addition to exhibiting the generalized flea index characteristics under drought conditions, the plague vectors Nosopsyllus laeviceps and Xenopsylla conformis parasitic on M. unguiculatus showed a facilitative effect in the 3rd month following severe wet conditions, with effect sizes of relative risk (RR) = 1.97 (95% CI: 1.13-3.45) and RR = 5.96 (95% CI: 3.25-10.94), respectively. With increasing drought severity, the flea index of M. unguiculatus rose significantly after a 3-month lag, with Z-test statistics of 2.16 (SPEI_3 = -1) and 2.63 (SPEI_3 = -1.5), both p < 0.05. Under severe drought (SPEI_3 = -1.5), the cumulative RR showed a significant difference in the two rodent species (Z = 2.27, p < 0.05). Therefore, it is essential to proactively monitor drought conditions in Inner Mongolia, particularly during the 3 months following a drought, and special attention should be paid to the increased abundance of Nosopsyllus laeviceps and Xenopsylla conformis in the 3rd month following severe wet conditions.

• Publication year

  2025

• Venue

  Integrative Zoology

• Publication date

  2025-08-06

• Fields of study

  Medicine, Environmental Science

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1111/1749-4877.13025PMID 40768392
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

• Bubonic Plague Alert Based on Flea Index in The Plague Observation Area of Pasuruan District, East Java Year 2023

  2024cited by this paper
• Impacts of ectoparasite flea infestation on gut microbiota of the Meriones unguiculatus in a rodent-flea system

  2024cited by this paper
• Effects of individual characteristics and seasonality and their interaction on ectoparasite load of Daurian ground squirrels in Inner Mongolia, China

  2024cited by this paper
• Relationship Between Climate Change and Marmot Plague of Marmota himalayana Plague Focus — the Altun Mountains of the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau, China, 2000–2022

  2024cited by this paper
• Provincial-scale assessment of vulnerability and resilience to drought in China.

  2024cited by this paper
• Complex effects of testosterone level on ectoparasite load in a ground squirrel: an experimental test for the immunocompetence handicap hypothesis

  2024cited by this paper
• Influence of biotic and abiotic factors on flea species population dynamics on Lasiopodomys brandtii

  2023cited by this paper
• Flea index predicts plague epizootics among great gerbils (Rhombomys opimus) in the Junggar Basin China plague focus

  2022cited by this paper
• Potential Effects of Environmental Conditions on Prairie Dog Flea Development and Implications for Sylvatic Plague Epizootics

  2022cited by this paper
• Characterisation of compound dry and hot events in Inner Mongolia and their relationship with large-scale circulation patterns

  2022cited by this paper
• Factors influencing range contraction of a rodent herbivore in a steppe grassland over the past decades

  2022cited by this paper
• Molecular and Genetic Mechanisms That Mediate Transmission of Yersinia pestis by Fleas

  2021cited by this paper
• Genetic source tracking of human plague cases in Inner Mongolia-Beijing, 2019

  2021cited by this paper
• Describing fine spatiotemporal dynamics of rat fleas in an insular ecosystem enlightens abiotic drivers of murine typhus incidence in humans

  2021cited by this paper
• Epidemiological Characteristics of Plague in the Meriones unguiculatus Plague Focus — Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China, 1950−2019

  2020cited by this paper
• Yersinia pestis: the Natural History of Plague

  2020cited by this paper
• Prediction of Droughts in the Mongolian Plateau Based on the CMIP5 Model

  2020cited by this paper
• Drought-induced spatio-temporal synchrony of plague outbreak in Europe.

  2019cited by this paper
• Spatial and temporal variability in extreme temperature and precipitation events in Inner Mongolia (China) during 1960-2017.

  2019cited by this paper
• Historical and genomic data reveal the influencing factors on global transmission velocity of plague during the Third Pandemic

  2019cited by this paper
• An Evaluation of the Flea Index as a Predictor of Plague Epizootics in the West Nile Region of Uganda

  2019cited by this paper
• Pre-industrial plague transmission is mediated by the synergistic effect of temperature and aridity index

  2018cited by this paper
• To block or not to block: The adaptive manipulation of plague transmission

  2018cited by this paper
• Does the host matter? Variable influence of host traits on parasitism rates.

  2018cited by this paper
• "Fleaing" the Plague: Adaptations of Yersinia pestis to Its Insect Vector That Lead to Transmission.

  2017cited by this paper
• Plague cycles in two rodent species from China: dry years might provide context for epizootics in wet years

  2016cited by this paper
• Droughts may increase susceptibility of prairie dogs to fleas: incongruity with hypothesized mechanisms of plague cycles in rodents

  2016cited by this paper
• [Advance to the research of the climate factor effect on the distribution of plague].

  2016cited by this paper
• Identification of Chinese plague foci from long-term epidemiological data

  2012cited by this paper
• Plague and Climate: Scales Matter

  2011cited by this paper
• The causality analysis of climate change and large-scale human crisis

  2011cited by this paper
• Distributed lag non-linear models

  2010cited by this paper
• Correlates of environmental factors and human plague: an ecological study in Vietnam.

  2009cited by this paper
• A Multiscalar Drought Index Sensitive to Global Warming: The Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index

  2009cited by this paper
• Relationship between increase rate of human plague in China and global climate index as revealed by cross-spectral and cross-wavelet analyses.

  2007cited by this paper
• RAPID RECOVERY OF RODENT POPULATIONS FOLLOWING SEVERE DROUGHT

  2006cited by this paper
• Egg production and emergence of adult cat fleas (Siphonaptera: Pulicidae) exposed to different photoperiods.

  1996cited by this paper
• Development and longevity of Nosopsyllus laeviceps kuzenkovi (Siphonaptera) from Inner Mongolia under laboratory conditions.

  1993cited by this paper
• Extended Longevity of the Pre-emerged Adult Cat Flea (Siphonaptera: Pulicidae) and Factors Stimulating Emergence from the Pupal Cocoon

  1985cited by this paper

• No citing papers are available for this paper.