PhD. ThesisWestern Usambara Mountains in Lushoto District, Tanzania, are highly populated owing to favourable climatic conditions for production of both cash and food crops such as coffee, tea, maize, beans, potatoes and assorted fruits and vegetables. Some areas in the district are also potential as tourist destinations. However, clusters of villages in the district are reported to be hot-spots of plague recurrence that has caused deaths of thousands of people. Plague outbreaks in some villages of Lushoto District show a high frequency (on average, more than 1 year out of three) while other villages, very nearby (0.05) on burrow port orientation. The results showed that both soil depth and temperature encouraged burrow use in the high plague frequency landscape (p<0.05). Soil depth, dry soil consistence and subsoil relative humidity (RH (%) within 30 cm depth) significantly (p<0.05) could explain the burrow abundance in the medium plague frequency landscape. The use of burrows depended on the resistance of burrow to collapse, a characteristics which is dependent on the compaction of topsoil. However, dry subsoil consistence discouraged burrowing. Subsoil dry consistence had a significant (p<0.05) negative influence on burrow portal orientation in the medium plague frequency area, something attributed to compaction of the soils. It is concluded that soil physical and soil microclimate in the high plague frequency landscape encourage burrowing, a phenomenon correlating with the reported human plague contact risks. The information obtained from this study could be applied for surveillance, monitoring and control of rodent populations.Landscape-ecological Clarification of Bubonic Plague Distribution and Outbreaks in the Western Usambara Mountains, Tanzania (LEPUS) via VLIR own initiative projec
