A comparison of Species Distribution Modeling approaches for an under-sampled parasite of public health importance, Echinococcus multilocularis.

BackgroundSpecies distribution models (SDMs) have an important role in predicting the range of emerging and understudied pathogens and parasites. Their use, however, is often limited by the lack of high-resolution unbiased occurrence records. Echinococcus multilocularis is a parasitic cestode of public health importance which is widely distributed throughout Eu rasia and is considered an emerging threat in North America. In common with many parasite species, available data for E. multilocularis occurrence are spatially biased and often poorly geo-referenced.\n\nResultsHere we produce three separate SDMs using MaxEnt for E. multilocularis using varying complexities of sampling schemes and env