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MECHANISMS LINKING HOST BIODIVERSITY TO LYME DISEASE RISK: AN EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH
Impact/Purpose:
Vector-borne zoonoses pose threats to human health throughout the world. Both anticipation of disease outbreaks and intervention that is effective in reducing risk are crucial for protecting public health. Such anticipation and intervention require a robust understanding of ecological conditions responsible for variation in disease threats. The proposed study will examine the broad context of interactions between ecological systems and human health to better understand the complex life cycle of Lyme disease, the most frequently reported vector-borne disease in the United States. Research is needed that focuses on the interactions among ticks, bacterial pathogens, the community of vertebrate hosts, and the landscapes in which vectors, pathogens, hosts, and humans interact to affect exposure to Lyme disease (LD). Risk of exposure to LD in the northeastern USA is a function of the abundance and Borrelia burgdorferi-infection prevalence of nymphal Ixodes scapularis ticks. The objective is to understand the mechanism(s) by which host diversity and community composition, as affected by anthropogenic changes to the landscape and other social stressors, drive human risk of infection with zoonotic pathogens, using LD as a model system.
Description:
We expect that communities in which abundances of non-mouse hosts are increased will be characterized by: (1) lower average larval burdens on mice; (2) lower densities and survival rates of mice; (3) lower total larval populations that feed on mice; (4) lower survival of larvae to the nymphal stage; (5) lower nymphal densities; and (6) lower infection prevalences of nymphs with B. burgdorferi. This research, combined with related efforts to understand the anthropogenic causes of change in host diversity and community composition, will provide the basis for a workshop that will foster interdisciplinary interactions among ecologists, epidemiologists, geographers, urban/suburban planners, and members of local, county, and state government (e.g. planning boards, zoning boards). The expected result of this workshop is a tentative set of guidelines to reduce LD risk. By better understanding disease dynamics, we may be able to develop new, non-chemical, environmentally based strategies to ameliorate disease transmission, while at the same time relying less on the use of pesticides. These new strategies can be part of an IPM approach to manage pest-borne diseases.