Estimated density of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto-infected Ixodes scapularis nymphs in the eastern United States.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Most vector-borne disease cases reported in the United States are caused by pathogens spread by blacklegged ticks, Ixodes scapularis. Of these, a majority are Lyme disease cases caused by Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto (s.s.). Because most human infections are associated with nymphal tick bites, the density of host-seeking B. burgdorferi s.s.-infected I. scapularis nymphs (DIN) is often used to estimate risk of Lyme disease cases. DIN combines estimates of nymphal infection prevalence with estimates of densities of host-seeking nymphs, making it a costly metric to obtain through tick surveillance. Thus, field-derived estimates of DIN are limited.

Methods

To fill these gaps, we sought to estimate DIN across all counties in the eastern United States. We first es

SUBMITTER: Holcomb KM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12362874 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature