The ecology of infectious disease: effects of host diversity and community composition on Lyme disease risk.

ABSTRACT: The extent to which the biodiversity and community composition of ecosystems affect their functions is an issue that grows ever more compelling as human impacts on ecosystems increase. We present evidence that supports a novel function of vertebrate biodiversity, the buffering of human risk of exposure to Lyme-disease-bearing ticks. We tested the Dilution Effect model, which predicts that high species diversity in the community of tick hosts reduces vector infection prevalence by diluting the effects of the most competent disease reservoir, the ubiquitous white-footed mouse (Peromyscus leucopus). As habitats are degraded by fragmentation or other anthropogenic forces, some members of the host community disappear. Thus, species-poor communities tend to have mice, but few other hosts, wherea

SUBMITTER: LoGiudice K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC141036 | biostudies-literature | 2003 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature