Host Distribution Does Not Limit the Range of the Tick Ixodes ricinus but Impacts the Circulation of Transmitted Pathogens.

ABSTRACT: Ticks, pathogens, and vertebrates interact in a background of environmental features that regulate the densities of ticks and vertebrates, affecting their contact rates and thence the circulation of the pathogens. Regional scale studies are invaluable sources of information about the regulation of these interactions, but a large-scale analysis of the interaction of communities of ticks, hosts, and the environment has been never modeled. This study builds on network analysis, satellite-derived climate and vegetation, and environmental modeling, quantifying the interactions between the tick Ixodes ricinus and the transmitted bacteria of the complex Borrelia burgdorferi s.l. in the Western Palaearctic. We derived the rates of contact of the tick with 162 species of vertebrates r

SUBMITTER: Estrada-Pena A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5649210 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature