Lyme Disease Risk Influences Human Settlement in the Wildland–Urban Interface: Evidence from a Longitudinal Analysis of Counties in the Northeastern United States

Larsen, Ashley E.; MacDonald, Andrew J.; Plantinga, Andrew J.

doi:10.4269/ajtmh.14-0181

Cited by 34 publications

(44 citation statements)

References 54 publications

(77 reference statements)

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“…In order to better understand and manage risk of vector-borne and zoonotic disease an understanding of the environmental conditions that promote vector populations and infection prevalence with zoonotic pathogens on the landscape is increasingly necessary [2, 5–7, 36]. In northwestern California, the region of western North America with the highest human incidence of Lyme disease [37], the abiotic, habitat and environmental conditions that might promote vector density and infection prevalence have been investigated in numerous studies [10, 11, 13–15, 38–40].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Management and control of such zoonoses is quite difficult because vaccination or treatment of human populations has no effect on underlying enzootic transmission, and infection is determined largely by contact with vectors [2, 4]. Strategies for disease control involving environmental management or land use planning [5, 6] may be increasingly important due to development of resistance to insecticides in vector populations and the challenges associated with managing enzootic transmission cycles [7, 8]. Such management strategies require an understanding of the abiotic and environmental conditions that promote both vector populations and elevated infection prevalence with zoonotic pathogens on the landscape.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Lyme disease risk in southern California: abiotic and environmental drivers of Ixodes pacificus (Acari: Ixodidae) density and infection prevalence with Borrelia burgdorferi

et al. 2017

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BackgroundTick-borne diseases, particularly Lyme disease, are emerging across the northern hemisphere. In order to manage emerging diseases and predict where emergence will likely occur, it is necessary to understand the factors influencing the distribution, abundance and infection prevalence of vector species. In North America, Lyme disease is the most common vector-borne disease and is transmitted by blacklegged ticks. This study aimed to explore the abiotic and environmental drivers of density and infection prevalence of western blacklegged ticks (Ixodes pacificus) in southern California, an understudied and densely populated region of North America.ResultsOver the course of this two-year study, densities of I. pacificus adults were consistently positively associated with host availability for juvenile ticks and dense oak woodland habitat. Densities of nymphal and larval I. pacificus, on the other hand were primarily predicted by host availability for juvenile ticks in the first year of the study, and by habitat characteristics such as dense leaf litter in the second year. Infection with the causative agent of Lyme disease, Borrelia burgdorferi (sensu stricto), and related spirochetes was not predicted by the abiotic conditions promoting I. pacificus populations, but rather by diversity of the tick community, and in particular by the presence of two Ixodes tick species that do not generally feed on humans (Ixodes spinipalpis and Ixodes peromysci). Borrelia spp. infection was not detected in the I. pacificus populations sampled, but was detected in other vector species that may maintain enzootic transmission of the pathogen on the landscape.ConclusionsThis study identified dense oak woodlands as high-risk habitats for I. pacificus tick encounter in southern California. The shift in relative importance of host availability to habitat characteristics in predicting juvenile tick abundance occurred as California’s historic drought intensified, suggesting that habitat providing suitable microclimates for tick survivorship became centrally important to patterns of abundance in the face of deleterious abiotic conditions. These results underscore the need for further investigation of the effects of climate change on tick-borne disease in California. Finally, despite low risk of human Lyme disease infection posed by I. pacificus in southern California, evidence of infection was found in other tick species, suggesting that enzootic transmission of tick-borne borreliae may be occurring in southern California, and involve parallel enzootic cycles with other tick and host species but not necessarily humans.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lyme disease risk in southern California: abiotic and environmental drivers of Ixodes pacificus (Acari: Ixodidae) density and infection prevalence with Borrelia burgdorferi

et al. 2017

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“…The within‐estimator requires panel data and generally does not solve reverse causality bias (Table ; for an exception see Larsen, MacDonald, & Plantinga, ). However, the instrumental variables (IV) approach can jointly solve selection bias, measurement error, and reverse causality, provided certain assumptions are met.…”

Section: Methodological Approachesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Causal analysis in control–impact ecological studies with observational data

2019

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Randomized experiments have long been the gold standard in determining causal effects in ecological control–impact studies. However, it may be difficult to address many ecologically and policy‐relevant control–impact questions‐such as the effect of forest fragmentation or protected areas on biodiversity through experimental manipulation due to scale, costs and ethical considerations. Yet, ecologists may still draw causal insights in observational control–impact settings by exploiting research designs that approximate the experimental ideal. Here, we review the challenges of making causal inference in non‐experimental control–impact scenarios as well as a suite of statistical tools specifically designed to overcome such challenges. These tools are widely used in fields where experimental research is more limited (i.e., medicine, economics), and could be applied by ecologists across numerous sub‐disciplines. Using hypothetical examples, we discuss why bias is likely to plague observational control–impact studies in ways that do not surface with experimental manipulations, why bias is generally the barrier to causal inference, and different methods to overcome this bias. Satellite‐, survey‐ and citizen–science data hold great potential for advancing key questions in ecology that would otherwise be prohibitive to pursue experimentally. However, to harness such data to understand causal impacts of land, environmental and policy changes, we must expand our toolset such that we can improve inference and more confidently advance ecological understanding and science‐informed policy.

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“…There are, however, many more ecological processes and interactions that are concentrated in the WUI, including exotic species introductions, disease transfers [9,10], and conflicts between predators and humans [11]. For example, American black bears that are recolonizing areas are more often found in WUI areas than in less densely populated rural areas [11].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Long-Term Changes of the Wildland–Urban Interface in the Polish Carpathians

Kaim

Radeloff

Szwagrzyk

et al. 2018

IJGI

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The Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) is the area where houses and wildland vegetation meet or intermingle, which causes many environmental problems. The current WUI is widespread in many regions, but it is unclear how the WUI evolved, especially in regions where both houses and forest cover have increased. Here we compared WUI change in the Polish Carpathians for 1860 and 2013 in two study areas with different land use history. Our western study area experienced gradual forest increase and housing growth over time, while the eastern study area was subject to a shock due to postwar resettlements, which triggered rapid reforestation. We found that in both study areas WUI extent increased from 1860 to 2013 (41.3 to 54.6%, and 12.2 to 33.3%, in the west and east, respectively). However the causes of WUI growth were very different. In the western study area new houses were the main cause for new WUI, while in the eastern study area forest cover increase was more important. Our results highlight that regions with similar current WUI cover have evolved very differently, and that the WUI has grown rapidly and is widespread in the Polish Carpathians.

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Lyme Disease Risk Influences Human Settlement in the Wildland–Urban Interface: Evidence from a Longitudinal Analysis of Counties in the Northeastern United States

Cited by 34 publications

References 54 publications

Lyme disease risk in southern California: abiotic and environmental drivers of Ixodes pacificus (Acari: Ixodidae) density and infection prevalence with Borrelia burgdorferi

Lyme disease risk in southern California: abiotic and environmental drivers of Ixodes pacificus (Acari: Ixodidae) density and infection prevalence with Borrelia burgdorferi

Causal analysis in control–impact ecological studies with observational data

Long-Term Changes of the Wildland–Urban Interface in the Polish Carpathians

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