Lyme Disease: The Ecology of a Complex SystemMost human diseases come from nature, from pathogens that live and breed in non-human animals and are "accidentally" transmitted to us. Human illness is only the culmination of a complex series of interactions among species in their natural habitats. To avoid exposure to these pathogens, we must understand which species are involved, what regulates their abundance, and how they interact. Lyme disease affects the lives of millions of people in the US, Europe, and Asia. It is the most frequently reported vector-borne disease in the United States; About 20,000 cases have been reported each year over the past five years, and tens of thousands more go unrecognized and unreported. Despite the epidemiological importance of understanding variable LD risk, such pursuit has been slow, indirect, and only partially successful, due in part to an overemphasis on identifying the small subset of 'key players' that contribute to Lyme disease risk, as well as a general misunderstanding of effective treatment options. This controversial book is a comprehensive, synthetic review of research on the ecology of Lyme disease in North America. It describes how humans get sick, why some years and places are so risky and others not. It challenges dogma - for instance, that risk is closely tied to the abundance of deer - and replaces it with a new understanding that embraces the complexity of species and their interactions. It describes why the place where Lyme disease emerged - coastal New England - set researchers on mistaken pathways. It shows how tiny acorns have enormous impacts on our probability of getting sick, why biodiversity is good for our health, why living next to a small woodlot is dangerous, and why Lyme disease is an excellent model system for understanding many other human and animal diseases. Intended for an audience of professional and student ecologists, epidemiologists, and other health scientists, it is written in an informal style accessible also to non-scientists interested in human health and conservation. |
From inside the book
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Page x
... Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, New York, I began a new field research project that involved studying populations of white-footed mice (Peromyscus leucopus). I was collaborating with my new colleagues Charles Canham ...
... Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, New York, I began a new field research project that involved studying populations of white-footed mice (Peromyscus leucopus). I was collaborating with my new colleagues Charles Canham ...
Page xi
... Cary Institute, particularly Charlie Canham, Alan Berkowitz, and Mike Pace, have been consistently generous with their thoughts and technical skills and have listened to me blather. Former graduate students and postdocs in my lab ...
... Cary Institute, particularly Charlie Canham, Alan Berkowitz, and Mike Pace, have been consistently generous with their thoughts and technical skills and have listened to me blather. Former graduate students and postdocs in my lab ...
Page xii
... Cary Institute deserve credit for making it the most stimulating and supportive professional environment I can ... Institutes of Health, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dutchess ...
... Cary Institute deserve credit for making it the most stimulating and supportive professional environment I can ... Institutes of Health, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dutchess ...
Page 39
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Contents
1 | |
11 | |
21 | |
4 Its the Mice | 39 |
5 Its the Weather | 59 |
6 Questioning Dogma | 79 |
Food Webs | 93 |
Biodiversity | 113 |
Ecosystem Functioning | 145 |
Biocontrol of Ticks and Lyme Disease | 175 |
In Pursuit of Emerging Infectious Diseases | 183 |
Literature Cited | 189 |
Index | 209 |
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Common terms and phrases
4-posters acorns adult ticks areas biodiversity bird diversity blacklegged ticks blood meal Borrelia burgdorferi Cary Institute cause climatic variables colleagues competent reservoirs Connecticut correlation dammini dilution effect Dutchess County ecological estimate feed figure forest floor forest fragments genotypes gypsy moths habitat hantavirus host community host species host-seeking increase infected nymphs infected ticks infection prevalence infectious diseases Island Ixodes Keesing larval ticks LoGiudice Lyme disease incidence Lyme disease risk masked shrews Millbrook models mosquitoes mouse number of larval number of ticks nymphal ticks nymphs opossums Ostfeld pathogen population density predators predict rates Reprinted with permission reservoir competence reservoir host rodents scapularis short-tailed shrews small mammals snail species richness spirochetes studies temperature tick abundance tick burdens tick populations tick survival tick-borne disease tion transmit traps vaccine vector vector-borne vertebrate vertebrate host West Nile virus white-footed mice white-footed mouse white-tailed deer York zoonotic