Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2013 Jul 1:6:195.
doi: 10.1186/1756-3305-6-195.

Does high biodiversity reduce the risk of Lyme disease invasion?

Catherine Bouchard  1 , Guy Beauchamp, Patrick A Leighton, Robbin Lindsay, Denise Bélanger, Nick H Ogden
Affiliations

Does high biodiversity reduce the risk of Lyme disease invasion?

Catherine Bouchard et al. Parasit Vectors. .

Abstract

Background: It has been suggested that increasing biodiversity, specifically host diversity, reduces pathogen and parasite transmission amongst wildlife (causing a "dilution effect"), whereby transmission amongst efficient reservoir hosts, (e.g. Peromyscus spp. mice for the agent of Lyme disease Borrelia burgdorferi) is reduced by the presence of other less efficient host species. If so, then increasing biodiversity should inhibit pathogen and parasite invasion.

Methods: We investigated this hypothesis by studying invasion of B. burgdorferi and its tick vector Ixodes scapularis in 71 field sites in southeastern Canada. Indices of trapped rodent host diversity, and of biodiversity of the wider community, were investigated as variables explaining the numbers of I. scapularis collected and B. burgdorferi infection in these ticks. A wide range of alternative environmental explanatory variables were also considered.

Results: The observation of low I. scapularis abundance and low B. burgdorferi infection prevalence in sites where I. scapularis were detected was consistent with early-stage invasion of the vector. There were significant associations between the abundance of ticks and season, year of study and ambient temperature. Abundance of host-seeking larvae was significantly associated with deer density, and abundance of host-seeking larvae and nymphs were positively associated with litter layer depth. Larval host infestations were lower where the relative proportion of non-Peromyscus spp. was high. Infestations of hosts with nymphs were lower when host species richness was higher, but overall nymphal abundance increased with species richness because Peromyscus spp. mouse abundance and host species richness were positively correlated. Nymphal infestations of hosts were lower where tree species richness was higher. B. burgdorferi infection prevalence in ticks varied significantly with an index of rates of migratory bird-borne vector and pathogen invasion.

Conclusions: I. scapularis abundance and B. burgdorferi prevalence varied with explanatory variables in patterns consistent with the known biology of these species in general, and in the study region in particular. The evidence for a negative effect of host biodiversity on I. scapularis invasion was mixed. However, some evidence suggests that community biodiversity beyond just host diversity may have direct or indirect inhibitory effects on parasite invasion that warrant further study.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Ixodes scapularis and B. burgdorferi occurrence at the 71 sites in southwestern Quebec, 2007–2008.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Piesman J, Mather TN, Donahue JG, Levine J, Campbell JD, Karakashian SJ, Spielman A. Comparative prevalence of Babesia microti and Borrelia burgdorferi in four populations of Ixodes dammini in eastern Massachusetts. Acta Trop. 1986;43(3):263–270. - PubMed
    1. Burgdorfer W, Barbour AG, Hayes SF, Benach JL, Grunwaldt E, Davis JP. Lyme disease: a Tick-borne spirochetosis. Science. 1982;216(4552):1317–1319. doi: 10.1126/science.7043737. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Spielman A, Clifford CM, Piesman J, Corwin MD. Human babesiosis on Nantucket Island, USA: description of the vector, Ixodes (Ixodes) dammini, n. sp. (Acarina: Ixodidae) J Med Entomol. 1979;15(3):218–234. - PubMed
    1. Davis JP, Schell WL, Amundson TE, Godsey MS, Spielman A, Burgdorfer W, Barbour AG, Laventure M, Kaslow RA. Lyme-Disease in Wisconsin - Epidemiologic, clinical, serologic, and entomologic findings. Yale J Biol Med. 1984;57(4):685–696. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Ogden NH, Trudel L, Artsob H, Barker IK, Beauchamp G, Charron DF, Drebot MA, Galloway TD, O’Handley R, Thompson RA. et al.Ixodes scapularis ticks collected by passive surveillance in Canada: Analysis of geographic distribution and infection with Lyme Borreliosis agent Borrelia burgdorferi. J Med Entomol. 2006;43(3):600–609. doi: 10.1603/0022-2585(2006)43[600:ISTCBP]2.0.CO;2. - DOI - PubMed

Publication types