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Vegetation structure influences the burden of immature Ixodes dammini on its main host, Peromyscus leucopus

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2009

G. H. Adler ,
S. R. Telford III ,
M. L. Wilson  and
A. Spielman
G. H. Adler
Affiliation:
Department of Population Sciences, Harvard School of Public Health, 665 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Unit 0948, APO Miami AA 34002–0948, USA
S. R. Telford III
Affiliation:
Department of Tropical Public Health, Harvard School of Public Health, 665 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA
M. L. Wilson
Affiliation:
Yale Arbovirus Research Unit, 60 College Street, New Haven, CT 06510, USA
A. Spielman
Affiliation:
Department of Tropical Public Health, Harvard School of Public Health, 665 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA
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Extract

To determine whether the relative abundance of immature Ixodes dammini (the vector of Lyme disease and human babesiosis) is related to habitat structure, we examined tick burdens on their main host, the white-footed mouse (Peromyscus leucopus), in 4 structurally diverse sites on Great Island, Massachusetts, USA. Vegetation structure at each site was quantified with respect to 25 habitat variables. Principal components analysis was used to reduce this set of habitat variables to seven new and orthogonal variables. Immature tick abundance varied widely among grids. Regression analysis of tick burdens on the habitat principal components showed that larval burdens were related strongly to the density of woody vegetation and negatively to herbaceous vegetation. Nymphal burdens were related negatively to herbaceous vegetation, but the relationship was not as strong as in the case of larvae. An experimental reduction in the abundance of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), the main host of adult ticks, substantially reduced tick burdens and altered their relationships to habitat structure. Nymphal burdens were unrelated to habitat structure following deer removal. Manipulating habitat structure may have utility as a control strategy against this important vector.

Keywords

Ixodes damminiPeromyscus leucopusvegetation structureLyme disease.
Type
Research Article
Information
Parasitology , Volume 105 , Issue 1 , August 1992 , pp. 105 - 110
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1992

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