Open Access
Research (Published online: 06-03-2018)
5. Androctonus genus species in arid regions: Ecological niche models, geographical distributions, and envenomation risk
Moulay Abdelmonaim El Hidan, Oulaid Touloun, Abdellah Bouazza, Mehdi Ait Laaradia and Ali Boumezzough
Veterinary World, 11(3): 286-292

Moulay Abdelmonaim El Hidan: Department of Biology, Laboratory of Ecology and Environment, Faculty of Sciences Semlalia, Cadi Ayyad University, Marrakesh 40000, PO Box 2390, Morocco.
Oulaid Touloun: Department of Biology, Laboratory of Ecology and Environment, Faculty of Sciences Semlalia, Cadi Ayyad University, Marrakesh 40000, PO Box 2390, Morocco; Department of Biology, Polyvalent Laboratory of Research & Development LPVRD, Polydisciplinary Faculty, Sultan Moulay Slimane University, Beni Mellal, PO Box 23023, Morocco.
Abdellah Bouazza: Faculty of Sciences, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics Laboratory, B.P. 2390, Cadi Ayyad University, Marrakech 40000, Morocco.
Mehdi Ait Laaradia: Department of Biology, Laboratory of Pharmacology, Neurobiology and Behavior, Faculty of Sciences Semlalia, University Cadi Ayyad, Marrakesh, Morocco.
Ali Boumezzough: Department of Biology, Laboratory of Ecology and Environment, Faculty of Sciences Semlalia, Cadi Ayyad University, Marrakesh 40000, PO Box 2390, Morocco.

doi: 10.14202/vetworld.2018.286-292

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Article history: Received: 24-09-2017, Accepted: 02-02-2018, Published online: 06-03-2018

Corresponding author: Moulay Abdelmonaim El Hidan

E-mail: elhidan@gmail.com

Citation: El Hidan MA, Touloun O, Bouazza A, Laaradia MA, Boumezzough A (2018) Androctonus genus species in arid regions: Ecological niche models, geographical distributions, and envenomation risk, Veterinary World, 11(3): 286-292.
Abstract

Aim: The objective of this study was to establish environmental factors related to scorpion species occurrence and their current potential geographic distributions in Morocco, to produce a current envenomation risk map and also to assess the human population at risk of envenomation.

Materials and Methods: In this study, 71 georeferenced points for all scorpion species and nine environmental indicators were used to generate species distribution models in Maxent (maximum entropy modeling of species geographic distributions) version 3.3.3k. The models were evaluated by the area under the curve (AUC), using the omission error and the binomial probability. With the data generated by Maxent, distribution and envenomation risk maps were produced using the "ESRI® ArcGIS 10.2.2 for Desktop" software.

Results: The models had high predictive success (AUC >0.95±0.025). Altitude, slope and five bioclimatic attributes were found to play a significant role in determining Androctonus scorpion species distribution. Ecological niche models (ENMs) showed high concordance with the known distribution of the species. Produced risk map identified broad risk areas for Androctonus scorpion envenomation, extending along Marrakech-Tensift-Al Haouz, Souss-Massa-Draa, and some areas of Doukkala-Abda and Oriental regions.

Conclusion: Considering these findings ENMs could be useful to afford important information on distributions of medically important scorpion species as well as producing scorpion envenomation risk maps.

Keywords: Androctonus genus, ecological niche models, Morocco, risk maps, scorpion envenomation.

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