Ana Garcia

Biology 1615
Professor Nicole Pearson
Influence of Land Use and Climate on Salmonella Carrier Status in the Small Indian Mongoose
(Herpestes Auropunctatus) In Grenada, West Indies
The Indian Mongoose were first introduced to the West Indies by sugar cane plantation
owners as a form of pest control. They are originally from Asia but were imported to the West
Indies in the late 1800s. Due to the high food availability the Mongoose population was grown
greatly over the past hundred years to the point that they are now considered a pest. Worldwide
mongoose are known as reservoir host for many dangerous pathogens, including Salmonella.
They hypothesized that Salmonella carriage in Mongooses would be high near human population
centers. To test their hypothesis they would have to study different locations in Grenada both
near humans and away from them to determine the Mongoose population among people. They
would also need to examine those mongoose to determine whether they were carriers of
Salmonella, they would have to do this during different seasons to determine if the climate was a
factor, and to help determine what environmental factors increase risk for Salmonella.
They investigated environmental correlations of Salmonella presence in Mongoose in
Grenada and they identified some environmental and climate correlations that seemed to be
factors that increased the risk of Salmonella in Mongoose populations near populated areas. In
result to this correlation they came up with the hypothesis that Salmonella carriage in Mongoose
would be higher in areas of higher human population. They wanted to know the percentage of
Mongoose positive for Salmonella so that the public health personnel could, in the future, predict
and anticipate Salmonella outbreaks in humans and also to create a target to decrease the
incidence of disease.

To gather the information that they needed to either reject or accept their hypothesis they
had to trap Mongoose during both the wet and dry seasons. So during both seasons local
residents would set out traps near roads, near highly populated areas, and also areas of low
human population so they could compare the Mongoose collected and examine which had an
overall higher percentage of being Salmonella carriers. The traps were set for 11 days during the
wet season and 5 days during the dry seasons. The method they used for trapping was to set all
the traps in shaded area 2-50 m apart and pick them up by midday the same day. The location of
the traps was documented using a global positioning system unit. Salmonella species were
separated and isolated from the other Mongoose. The human density was calculated by
multiplying the number of houses in each circle by the average number of people per household
based on the population data obtained by the last (most recent) Grenada census. The road density
was measured in meters from the center of each study site to the nearest road. The total length of
all roads within the circle was divided by the area of the circle.
The results received were that of the four variable measured only two were correlated
with the carriage of Salmonella in Mongoose. Those two are human density and distance from
roads. They were both significant in the predictors of Salmonella carriage. Mongooses that were
positive for Salmonella were documented to be trapped closer to roads. The Mongoose that were
trapped further from the roads were found to be negative. A higher human density also had a
correlation with the amount of positive Mongoose for Salmonella. They found no significant
difference in male and female Mongoose nor did they find a significant difference in adult and
juvenile Mongoose. The climate did not make much of a difference either. Therefore based on
their results they accept their hypothesis because they did find a correlation between the
Salmonella carriage and human population.

To conclude this experiment proved that in Grenada the Mongoose that are found near
roads and close to human population have a higher percentage to be carriers of Salmonella.
Therefore they accept their hypothesis based on the results received from comparing how
distance from roads, human density, and climate affected the amount of Mongoose that were
found positive for Salmonella. They also found out that climate did not have a significant
difference in Mongooses positive for Salmonella, unlike the distance from roads and human
density which did have a significant difference in the amount of positive Mongoose for
Salmonella.