Do birds affect Lyme disease risk? Range expansion of the vector‐borne pathogen Borrelia burgdorferi

Autor: Corrine M. Folsom-O'Keefe, Maria A. Diuk-Wasser, R. Jory Brinkerhoff, Kimberly Tsao
Rok vydání: 2009
Předmět:
Zdroj: Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. 9:103-110
ISSN: 1540-9309
1540-9295
DOI: 10.1890/090062
Popis: Because of their capacity for long-range movement, birds may play an important role in the spread and range expansion of zoonotic pathogens and their vectors. The black-legged tick (Ixodes scapularis) is the principal vector for the Lyme disease bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi, and commonly parasitizes a wide variety of vertebrate hosts, including at least 71 species of North American birds. Although the role of birds in B burgdorferi transmission dynamics is often discounted, data compiled from published studies indicate that the majority (58.6%) of bird species that have been evaluated are capable of infecting larval I scapularis with B burgdorferi. We estimated – for two bird species – that the number of individual birds required to produce one infected I scapularis larva is as low as three, and we conclude that bird-mediated tick movement is an important factor in the range expansion of both I scapularis and B burgdorferi.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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