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

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          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.

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          Most cited references31

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          USING CIRCUIT THEORY TO MODEL CONNECTIVITY IN ECOLOGY, EVOLUTION, AND CONSERVATION

          Connectivity among populations and habitats is important for a wide range of ecological processes. Understanding, preserving, and restoring connectivity in complex landscapes requires connectivity models and metrics that are reliable, efficient, and process based. We introduce a new class of ecological connectivity models based in electrical circuit theory. Although they have been applied in other disciplines, circuit-theoretic connectivity models are new to ecology. They offer distinct advantages over common analytic connectivity models, including a theoretical basis in random walk theory and an ability to evaluate contributions of multiple dispersal pathways. Resistance, current, and voltage calculated across graphs or raster grids can be related to ecological processes (such as individual movement and gene flow) that occur across large population networks or landscapes. Efficient algorithms can quickly solve networks with millions of nodes, or landscapes with millions of raster cells. Here we review basic circuit theory, discuss relationships between circuit and random walk theories, and describe applications in ecology, evolution, and conservation. We provide examples of how circuit models can be used to predict movement patterns and fates of random walkers in complex landscapes and to identify important habitat patches and movement corridors for conservation planning.
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            Effect of Forest Fragmentation on Lyme Disease Risk

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              Is Open Access

              Ixodes ricinus and Its Transmitted Pathogens in Urban and Peri-Urban Areas in Europe: New Hazards and Relevance for Public Health

              Tick-borne diseases represent major public and animal health issues worldwide. Ixodes ricinus, primarily associated with deciduous and mixed forests, is the principal vector of causative agents of viral, bacterial, and protozoan zoonotic diseases in Europe. Recently, abundant tick populations have been observed in European urban green areas, which are of public health relevance due to the exposure of humans and domesticated animals to potentially infected ticks. In urban habitats, small and medium-sized mammals, birds, companion animals (dogs and cats), and larger mammals (roe deer and wild boar) play a role in maintenance of tick populations and as reservoirs of tick-borne pathogens. Presence of ticks infected with tick-borne encephalitis virus and high prevalence of ticks infected with Borrelia burgdorferi s.l., causing Lyme borreliosis, have been reported from urbanized areas in Europe. Emerging pathogens, including bacteria of the order Rickettsiales (Anaplasma phagocytophilum, “Candidatus Neoehrlichia mikurensis,” Rickettsia helvetica, and R. monacensis), Borrelia miyamotoi, and protozoans (Babesia divergens, B. venatorum, and B. microti) have also been detected in urban tick populations. Understanding the ecology of ticks and their associations with hosts in a European urbanized environment is crucial to quantify parameters necessary for risk pre-assessment and identification of public health strategies for control and prevention of tick-borne diseases.
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                Author and article information

                Journal
                Emerg Infect Dis
                Emerging Infect. Dis
                EID
                Emerging Infectious Diseases
                Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
                1080-6040
                1080-6059
                June 2019
                : 25
                : 6
                : 1136-1143
                Affiliations
                [1]Columbia University, New York, New York, USA (M.C. VanAcker, M.A. Diuk-Wasser);
                [2]Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, New Haven, Connecticut, USA (E.A.H. Little, G. Molaei);
                [3]Yale University, New Haven (G. Molaei);
                [4]New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, New York, New York, USA (W.I. Bajwa)
                Author notes
                Address for correspondence: Meredith C. VanAcker, Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology, Columbia University, 1102 Schermerhorn Extension Bldg, 1200 Amsterdam Ave, New York, NY 10027, USA; email: mv2640@ 123456columbia.edu
                Article
                18-1741
                10.3201/eid2506.181741
                6537717
                31107213
                e3d40cd6-da39-40c7-932e-66dfd29e5f6a
                History
                Categories
                Research
                Research
                Enhancement of Risk for Lyme Disease by Landscape Connectivity, New York, New York, USA

                Infectious disease & Microbiology
                ixodes scapularis,ticks,borrelia burgdorferi,bacteria,enhancement,fragmentation,emergence,landscape connectivity,lyme disease,urban lyme disease,disease risk,vector-borne infections,tick-borne infections,new york city,new york,staten island,united states

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