Figure 2 shows each equine center in relation to the ecologic area.
The study area in the Serengeti ecologic region in northwestern Tanzania comprised wildlife-protected areas, including the Serengeti National Park (SNP) and adjacent game reserves (Maswa, Ikorongo, and Grumeti).
We believe that knowledge of ecologic region and proximity to water can be used to define areas within which tularemia exposure is more likely.
More recently, human and animal cases of infection with the emerging fungal pathogen Cryptococcus gattii showed promise for identifying ecologic niches and areas at high risk for this infection.
Furthermore, B. gilchristii is hypothesized to inhabit a specific ecologic niche in areas of hyperendemicity, whereas B. dermatitidis may be adapted to a wider range of environmental conditions and distribution throughout North America may be scattered (30 ).
braziliensis is widely distributed in South America, this species may be transmitted by several different sand flies species and different animal species can be the reservoirs in distinct ecologic and geographical areas, which increases the molecular diversity of the parasites [ 9, 10].
It is also vital to appreciate that this is a small area (ecologic) study, where exposure assessment is based solely on place of residence, and the possible biologic pathway is not clear.
Investigations have adopted either the case control (e.g., Aschengrau et al. 1998; Infante-Rivard and Amre 2001; Morris and Knorr 1996; Mulder et al. 1994; Wrensch et al. 1999) or small-area (ecologic) approach (e.g., Berry and Bove 1997; Goldberg et al. 1995; Kokki et al. 2001; Lopez-Abente et al. 2001; Wilkinson et al. 1997).
Clinicians should be alert for tick-borne infectious diseases resulting from ecotourism activities, especially in parks and ecologic reserves in the areas of the Atlantic Forest and other areas of Brazil where many rickettsiae-infected ticks have been identified and most BSF cases have been reported.
The etiologic agent of the disease is Pythium insidiosum, an aquatic fungus-like organism (kingdom Chromista, phylum Oomycota, class Oomycetes), having an ecologic preference for swampy areas and found primarily in tropical, subtropical and temperate areas of the world [ 1- 3].
