Enhancement of Risk for Lyme Disease by Landscape Connectivity, New York, New York, USA

Abstract

Most tickborne disease studies in the United States are conducted in low-intensity residential development and forested areas, leaving much unknown about urban infection risks. To understand Lyme disease risk in New York, New York, USA, we conducted tick surveys in 24 parks throughout all 5 boroughs and assessed how park connectivity and landscape composition contribute to Ixodes scapularis tick nymphal densities and Borrelia burgdorferi infection. We used circuit theory models to determine how parks differentially maintain landscape connectivity for white-tailed deer, the reproductive host for I. scapularis ticks. We found forested parks with vegetated buffers and increased connectivity had higher nymph densities, and the degree of park connectivity strongly determined B. burgdorferi nymphal infection prevalence. Our study challenges the perspective that tickborne disease risk is restricted to suburban and natural settings and emphasizes the need to understand how green space design affects vector and host communities in areas of emerging urban tickborne disease.

Enhanced threat of tick‐borne infections within cities? Assessing public health risks due to ticks in urban green spaces in Helsinki, Finland

“…Several studies focusing on tick populations in cities have been published (Hansford et al., 2017; Klemola et al., 2019; Kowalec et al., 2017; Maetzel et al, 2005; Oechslin et al., 2017; Rizzoli et al., 2014; Schorn et al, 2011; VanAcker et al, 2019; Žákovská et al, 2008). Overall, these reports suggest that viable tick populations are common in urban green spaces and that the diversity and prevalence of TPBs in these areas are comparable to those measured in nonurban areas.…”

Comparing the Climatic and Landscape Risk Factors for Lyme Disease Cases in the Upper Midwest and Northeast United States

“…For landscape factors, a previous review had suggested that the presence of forest was consistently associated with increased Lyme disease risk [1]. Besides, forest habitat configurations can also be important in affecting Lyme disease risk due to its impacts on host movements and distributions, as well as the contact rates between human and ticks [23][24][25][26]. Human activity like urbanization induced fragmentation, increasing the amount of edge habitats between residential development and forests [3,27].…”

Active surveillance of pathogens from ticks collected in New York State suburban parks and schoolyards

“…Efforts to survey ticks and their pathogens have mostly focused in rural areas of the state where high prevalence rates and diversity of pathogens have been recorded (Aliota et al, 2014;Dupuis et al, 2013). However, findings from a study carried out in public parks of New York City have provided strong evidence that human populations are at risk of being bitten by pathogen-infected blacklegged ticks in highly urbanized landscapes (VanAcker, Little, Molaei, Bajwa, & Diuk-Wasser, 2019). Thus, tick-borne disease risk is not limited to natural areas in suburban or rural communities.…”