RESEARCH ARTICLE Spatial Analysis of Anthropogenic Landscape Disturbance and Buruli Ulcer Disease in Benin

Background Land use and land cover (LULC) change is one anthropogenic disturbance linked to infec-tious disease emergence. Current research has focused largely on wildlife and vector-borne zoonotic diseases, neglecting to investigate landscape disturbance and environmen-tal bacterial infections. One example is Buruli ulcer (BU) disease, a necrotizing skin disease caused by the environmental pathogenMycobacterium ulcerans (MU). Empirical and anec-dotal observations have linked BU incidence to landscape disturbance, but potential rela-tionships have not been quantified as they relate to land cover configurations. Methodology/Principal Findings A landscape ecological approach utilizing Bayesian hierarchical models with spatial random effects was used to test study hypotheses that land cover configurations indicative of anthropogenic disturbance were related to Buruli ulcer (BU) disease in southern Benin, an