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Community ecology and disease risk: lizards, squirrels, and the Lyme disease spirochete in California, USA
Author(s) -
Salkeld Daniel J.,
Lane Robert S.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
ecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.144
H-Index - 294
eISSN - 1939-9170
pISSN - 0012-9658
DOI - 10.1890/08-2106.1
Subject(s) - biology , borrelia burgdorferi , tick , sciurus , lyme disease , ecology , host (biology) , borrelia , sciurus carolinensis , ixodes scapularis , nymph , zoology , wood mouse , vector (molecular biology) , ixodidae , habitat , virology , immunology , biochemistry , gene , antibody , recombinant dna , apodemus
Vector‐borne zoonotic diseases are often maintained in complex transmission cycles involving multiple vertebrate hosts and their arthropod vectors. In the state of California, USA, the spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi , which causes Lyme disease, is transmitted between vertebrate hosts by the western black‐legged tick, Ixodes pacificus. Several mammalian species serve as reservoir hosts of the spirochete, but levels of tick infestation, reservoir competence, and Borrelia‐ infection prevalence vary widely among such hosts. Here, we model the host (lizards, Peromyscus mice, Californian meadow voles, dusky‐footed wood rats, and western gray squirrels), vector, and pathogen community of oak woodlands in northwestern California to determine the relative importance of different tick hosts. Observed infection prevalence of B. burgdorferi in host‐seeking I. pacificus nymphs was 1.8–5.3%, and our host‐community model estimated an infection prevalence of 1.6–2.2%. The western gray squirrel ( Sciurus griseus ) was the only source of infected nymphs. Lizards, which are refractory to Borrelia infection, are important in feeding subadult ticks but reduce disease risk (nymphal infection prevalence). Species identity is therefore critical in understanding and determining the local disease ecology.