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n Ixodes scapularis is the principal vector of Lyme disease on the East Coast and in the upper Midwest regions of the UnitedStates, yet the tick is also present in the Southeast, where Lyme disease is absent or rare. A closely related species, I. affinis, also carries the pathogen in the South but does not seem to transmit it to humans. In order to better understand the geographic diversity of the tick, we analyzed the microbiota of 104 adult I. scapularis and 13 adult I. affinis ticks captured in 19 locations in South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Connecticut, and New York. Initially, ticks from 4 sites were analyzed by 454 pyrosequencing. Subsequently, ticks from these sites plus 15 others were analyzed by sequencing with an Illumina MiSeq machine. By both analyses, the microbiomes of female ticks were significantly less diverse than those of male ticks. The dissimilarity between tick microbiomes increased with distance between sites, and the state in which a tick was collected could be inferred from its microbiota. The genus Rickettsia was prominent in all locations. Borrelia was also present in most locations and was present at especially high levels in one site in western Virginia. In contrast, members of the family Enterobacteriaceae were very common in North Carolina I. scapularis ticks but uncommon in I. scapularis ticks from other sites and in North Carolina I. affinis ticks. These data suggest substantial variations in the Ixodes microbiota in association with geography, species, and sex.

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Background Hazardous air pollutants are plausible candidate exposures for autism spectrum disorders. They have been explored in recent studies for their role in the development of these disorders. Methods We used a prevalent case-control design to screen perinatal exposure to 35 hazardous air pollutants for further investigation in autism etiology. We included 383 children with autism spectrum disorders and, as controls, 2829 children with speech and language impairment. All participants were identified from the records-based surveillance of 8-year-old children conducted by the Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network in North Carolina (for children born in 1994 and 1996) and West Virginia (born in 1992 and 1994). Exposures to ambient concentrations of metal, particulate, and volatile organic air pollutants in the census tract of the child’s birth residence were assigned from the 1996 National Air Toxics Assessment annual-average model. We estimated odds ratios (ORs) for autism spectrum disorders and corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs), comparing across the 20th and 80th percentiles of log-transformed hazardous air pollutant concentration among the selected controls, using semi-Bayes logistic models and adjusting for sampling variables (surveillance year and state), a priori demographic confounders from the birth certificate and census, and covarying air pollutants. Results We estimated many near-null ORs, including those for metals, established human neurodevelopmental toxicants, and several pollutants that were elevated in a similar study in California. Hazardous air pollutants with more precise and elevated OR estimates included methylene chloride, 1.4 (95% CI = 0.7–2.5), quinoline, 1.4 (1.0–2.2), and styrene, 1.8 (1.0–3.1). Conclusions Our screening design was limited by exposure misclassification of air pollutants and the use of an alternate developmental disorder as the control group, both of which may have biased results toward the null. Despite these limitations, methylene chloride, quinoline, and styrene emerged (based on this analysis and prior epidemiologic evidence) as candidates that warrant further investigation for a possible role in autism etiology.

Probing all known drug-resistance loci using molecular inversion probes across the Democratic Republic of the Congo reveals prevalence, frequency, and geographical distribution of drug-resistant parasites, as well as spread of sulfadoxine-resistance mutations despite minimal official sulfadoxine use.