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Why Lyme disease is common in the northern US, but rare in the south: The roles of host choice, host-seeking behavior, and tick density

Lyme disease is common in the northeastern United States, but rare in the southeast, even though the tick vector is found in both regions. Infection prevalence of Lyme spirochetes in host-seeking ticks, an important component to the risk of Lyme disease, is also high in the northeast and northern mi...

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Autores principales: Ginsberg, Howard S., Hickling, Graham J., Burke, Russell L., Ogden, Nicholas H., Beati, Lorenza, LeBrun, Roger A., Arsnoe, Isis M., Gerhold, Richard, Han, Seungeun, Jackson, Kaetlyn, Maestas, Lauren, Moody, Teresa, Pang, Genevieve, Ross, Breann, Rulison, Eric L., Tsao, Jean I.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7842935/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33507921
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001066
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author Ginsberg, Howard S.
Hickling, Graham J.
Burke, Russell L.
Ogden, Nicholas H.
Beati, Lorenza
LeBrun, Roger A.
Arsnoe, Isis M.
Gerhold, Richard
Han, Seungeun
Jackson, Kaetlyn
Maestas, Lauren
Moody, Teresa
Pang, Genevieve
Ross, Breann
Rulison, Eric L.
Tsao, Jean I.
author_facet Ginsberg, Howard S.
Hickling, Graham J.
Burke, Russell L.
Ogden, Nicholas H.
Beati, Lorenza
LeBrun, Roger A.
Arsnoe, Isis M.
Gerhold, Richard
Han, Seungeun
Jackson, Kaetlyn
Maestas, Lauren
Moody, Teresa
Pang, Genevieve
Ross, Breann
Rulison, Eric L.
Tsao, Jean I.
author_sort Ginsberg, Howard S.
collection PubMed
description Lyme disease is common in the northeastern United States, but rare in the southeast, even though the tick vector is found in both regions. Infection prevalence of Lyme spirochetes in host-seeking ticks, an important component to the risk of Lyme disease, is also high in the northeast and northern midwest, but declines sharply in the south. As ticks must acquire Lyme spirochetes from infected vertebrate hosts, the role of wildlife species composition on Lyme disease risk has been a topic of lively academic discussion. We compared tick–vertebrate host interactions using standardized sampling methods among 8 sites scattered throughout the eastern US. Geographical trends in diversity of tick hosts are gradual and do not match the sharp decline in prevalence at southern sites, but tick–host associations show a clear shift from mammals in the north to reptiles in the south. Tick infection prevalence declines north to south largely because of high tick infestation of efficient spirochete reservoir hosts (rodents and shrews) in the north but not in the south. Minimal infestation of small mammals in the south results from strong selective attachment to lizards such as skinks (which are inefficient reservoirs for Lyme spirochetes) in the southern states. Selective host choice, along with latitudinal differences in tick host-seeking behavior and variations in tick densities, explains the geographic pattern of Lyme disease in the eastern US.
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spelling pubmed-78429352021-02-04 Why Lyme disease is common in the northern US, but rare in the south: The roles of host choice, host-seeking behavior, and tick density Ginsberg, Howard S. Hickling, Graham J. Burke, Russell L. Ogden, Nicholas H. Beati, Lorenza LeBrun, Roger A. Arsnoe, Isis M. Gerhold, Richard Han, Seungeun Jackson, Kaetlyn Maestas, Lauren Moody, Teresa Pang, Genevieve Ross, Breann Rulison, Eric L. Tsao, Jean I. PLoS Biol Research Article Lyme disease is common in the northeastern United States, but rare in the southeast, even though the tick vector is found in both regions. Infection prevalence of Lyme spirochetes in host-seeking ticks, an important component to the risk of Lyme disease, is also high in the northeast and northern midwest, but declines sharply in the south. As ticks must acquire Lyme spirochetes from infected vertebrate hosts, the role of wildlife species composition on Lyme disease risk has been a topic of lively academic discussion. We compared tick–vertebrate host interactions using standardized sampling methods among 8 sites scattered throughout the eastern US. Geographical trends in diversity of tick hosts are gradual and do not match the sharp decline in prevalence at southern sites, but tick–host associations show a clear shift from mammals in the north to reptiles in the south. Tick infection prevalence declines north to south largely because of high tick infestation of efficient spirochete reservoir hosts (rodents and shrews) in the north but not in the south. Minimal infestation of small mammals in the south results from strong selective attachment to lizards such as skinks (which are inefficient reservoirs for Lyme spirochetes) in the southern states. Selective host choice, along with latitudinal differences in tick host-seeking behavior and variations in tick densities, explains the geographic pattern of Lyme disease in the eastern US. Public Library of Science 2021-01-28 /pmc/articles/PMC7842935/ /pubmed/33507921 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001066 Text en https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ This is an open access article, free of all copyright, and may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, built upon, or otherwise used by anyone for any lawful purpose. The work is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) public domain dedication.
spellingShingle Research Article
Ginsberg, Howard S.
Hickling, Graham J.
Burke, Russell L.
Ogden, Nicholas H.
Beati, Lorenza
LeBrun, Roger A.
Arsnoe, Isis M.
Gerhold, Richard
Han, Seungeun
Jackson, Kaetlyn
Maestas, Lauren
Moody, Teresa
Pang, Genevieve
Ross, Breann
Rulison, Eric L.
Tsao, Jean I.
Why Lyme disease is common in the northern US, but rare in the south: The roles of host choice, host-seeking behavior, and tick density
title Why Lyme disease is common in the northern US, but rare in the south: The roles of host choice, host-seeking behavior, and tick density
title_full Why Lyme disease is common in the northern US, but rare in the south: The roles of host choice, host-seeking behavior, and tick density
title_fullStr Why Lyme disease is common in the northern US, but rare in the south: The roles of host choice, host-seeking behavior, and tick density
title_full_unstemmed Why Lyme disease is common in the northern US, but rare in the south: The roles of host choice, host-seeking behavior, and tick density
title_short Why Lyme disease is common in the northern US, but rare in the south: The roles of host choice, host-seeking behavior, and tick density
title_sort why lyme disease is common in the northern us, but rare in the south: the roles of host choice, host-seeking behavior, and tick density
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7842935/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33507921
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001066
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