Why Lyme disease is common in the northern US, but rare in the south: The roles of host choice, host-seeking behavior, and tick density.

ABSTRACT: Lyme disease is common in the northeastern United States, but rare in the southeast, even though the tick vector is found in both regions. Infection prevalence of Lyme spirochetes in host-seeking ticks, an important component to the risk of Lyme disease, is also high in the northeast and northern midwest, but declines sharply in the south. As ticks must acquire Lyme spirochetes from infected vertebrate hosts, the role of wildlife species composition on Lyme disease risk has been a topic of lively academic discussion. We compared tick-vertebrate host interactions using standardized sampling methods among 8 sites scattered throughout the eastern US. Geographical trends in diversity of tick hosts are gradual and do not match the sharp decline in prevalence at southern sites, but tick-host ass

SUBMITTER: Ginsberg HS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7842935 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature