Integrating tick density and park visitor behaviors to assess the risk of tick exposure in urban parks on Staten Island, New York

Abstract

Background Public green spaces are important for human health, but they may expose visitors to ticks and tick-borne pathogens. We sought to understand, for the first time, visitors’ exposure risk and drivers of tick-preventative behavior in three popular parks on Staten Island, New York City, NY, USA, by integrating tick hazard and park visitors’ behaviors, risk perceptions and knowledge. Methods We conducted tick sampling in three parks, across three site types (open spaces, the edge of open spaces, and trails) and three within-park habitats (maintained grass, unmaintained herbaceous, and leaf litter) to estimate tick density during May-August 2019. Human behavior was assessed by observations of time spent and activity type in each site. We integrated the time spent in each location by park visitors and the tick density to estimate the probability of human-tick encounter. To assess visitors’ tick prevention behaviors, a knowledge, attitude, and practices (KAP) survey was administered. Results Three tick species (Ixodes scapularis, Amblyomma americanum and Haemaphysalis longicornis) were collected. For all species, the density of nymphs was greatest in unmaintained herbaceous habitats and trails, however, the fewest people entered these hazardous locations. The KAP survey revealed that most respondents (N = 190) identified parks as the main location for tick exposure, but most believed they had minimal risk for tick encounter. Consequently, many visitors did not conduct tick checks. People were most likely to practice tick checks if they knew multiple prevention methods and perceived a high likelihood of tick encounter. Conclusions By integrating acarological indices with park visitor behaviors, we found a mismatch between areas with higher tick densities and areas more frequently used by park visitors. However, this exposure risk varied among demographic groups, the type of activities and parks, with a higher probability of human-tick encounters in trails compared to open spaces. Furthermore, we showed that people’s KAP did not change across parks even if parks represented different exposure risks. Our research is a first step towards identifying visitor risk, attitudes, and practices that could be targeted by optimized messaging strategies for tick bite prevention among park visitors.

Assessing knowledge gaps and empowering Extension workers in Illinois with information on ticks and tickborne diseases through KAP surveys

“…We observed some dissonance between knowledge and actual adoption of recommended tick prevention measures among the Extension community, as reported in other studies [ 43 , 44 ]. For example, 67.4 % identified ‘wearing permethrin-treated clothing’ as a recommended tick prevention measure but only 33.9 % reported personal use of permethrin-treated clothing at baseline, although this increased to 51.6 % after training.…”

Adapting vector surveillance using Bayesian experimental design: An application to an ongoing tick monitoring program in the southeastern United States

“…The application of BED for vector surveillance used in this work focused on establishing tick presence in public natural areas, although we note that the framework used here can be applied to other metrics such as abundance with minimal changes. While measuring tick presence or abundance in outdoor recreational areas such as state parks is a widely used method for establishing human exposure risk ( Falco and Fish, 1989 ; Hassett et al, 2022 ), and for detecting expanding ranges of ticks and tick-borne pathogens ( Johnson et al, 2017 ), the reliability of such data for predicting individualized risk of infection is unclear. For Lyme disease, it has been suggested that private property is the main source of exposure to host-seeking nymphs ( Eisen and Eisen, 2016 ; Mead et al, 2018 ).…”

Detection of multiple tick-borne pathogens in Ixodes scapularis from Hunterdon County, NJ, USA

“…Given the voluntary status of BMD reporting in NJ, it seems likely that this figure reflects unique testing and reporting practices in Hunterdon. Additionally, human behavioral factors, including recreational location preferences, may contribute to variability in tick encounter risk ( Borșan et al, 2021 ; Hassett et al, 2022 ).…”