Landscape structure affects the prevalence and distribution of a tick-borne zoonotic pathogen.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Landscape structure can affect pathogen prevalence and persistence with consequences for human and animal health. Few studies have examined how reservoir host species traits may interact with landscape structure to alter pathogen communities and dynamics. Using a landscape of islands and mainland sites we investigated how natural landscape fragmentation affects the prevalence and persistence of the zoonotic tick-borne pathogen complex Borrelia burgdorferi (sensu lato), which causes Lyme borreliosis. We hypothesized that the prevalence of B. burgdorferi (s.l.) would be lower on islands compared to the mainland and B. afzelii, a small mammal specialist genospecies, would be more affected by isolation than bird-associated B. garinii and B. valaisiana and the generalist B. b

SUBMITTER: Millins C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6278045 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature