Risk factors for tick exposure in suburban settings in the Northeastern United States

Mead, Paul S.; Hook, Sarah; Niesobecki, Sara A.; Ray, J. A.; Meek, James; Delorey, Mark J.; Prue, Christine E.; Hinckley, Alison F.

doi:10.1016/j.ttbdis.2017.11.006

Cited by 75 publications

(60 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…This spatialization is even more important in view of the local territory of individuals. Even if contemporary lifestyles tend to be more mobile, the results of this study show that individuals practice most of their outdoor activities in close proximity to their place of residence, and some are even restricted to private spaces (gardening) as seen in other studies [36]. This is important with regard to prevention behaviors, which are more thoroughly integrated if they take into account the local adaptation, in the sense of people's attachment to the places where they live [64,65].…”

Section: Tbr and Prevention Policiessupporting

confidence: 51%

Tick Bite Risk as a Socio-Spatial Representation—An Exploratory Study in Massif Central, France

Dernat

Johany

2019

Land

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Ticks are responsible for the largest number of transmissions of vector-borne diseases in the northern hemisphere, which makes the risk from tick bites a serious public health problem. Biological scientific research and prevention studies are important, but they have not focused on the population’s perception of tick bite risk, especially at a spatial level. This exploratory article sets out to study this point through an innovative methodology involving the collection of 133 mental maps associated with a semi-structured interview and a socio-demographic questionnaire collected in the Massif Central region, France. The results show a strong link between the representation of the tick bite risk and the representation of particular landscapes. Forests appear as dangerous for the population, especially in the traditional activities of family walking or hiking. This calls into question overly anxiogenic prevention approaches that neglect the impact on practices in risk-prone spaces. It accentuates the need for localized education measure to improve knowledge about tick biology and avoid stereotypical and unnecessary negative representations associated with the environment.

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Section: Tbr and Prevention Policiessupporting

confidence: 51%

Tick Bite Risk as a Socio-Spatial Representation—An Exploratory Study in Massif Central, France

Dernat

Johany

2019

Land

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“…In Europe, most exposures to TBPs occur during outdoor activities in public areas. Whereas in high incidence parts of the northeastern USA where suburban residential properties are frequently located in wooded, tick-infested areas, most infections are acquired peridomestically, on private properties [148,149]. In the latter instance, it can be assumed that individuals have greater opportunity to actively manage the environments where they are most likely to be exposed, whereas persons in Europe may have less influence over conditions in settings where they may be exposed, and thereby, greater reliance is placed on the role of local government.…”

Section: Tick Management In the Usa In Comparison To Europementioning

confidence: 99%

Management Options for Ixodes ricinus-Associated Pathogens: A Review of Prevention Strategies

Černý

Lynn

Hrnková

et al. 2020

IJERPH

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Ticks are important human and animal parasites and vectors of many infectious disease agents. Control of tick activity is an effective tool to reduce the risk of contracting tick-transmitted diseases. The castor bean tick (Ixodes ricinus) is the most common tick species in Europe. It is also a vector of the causative agents of Lyme borreliosis and tick-borne encephalitis, which are two of the most important arthropod-borne diseases in Europe. In recent years, increases in tick activity and incidence of tick-borne diseases have been observed in many European countries. These increases are linked to many ecological and anthropogenic factors such as landscape management, climate change, animal migration, and increased popularity of outdoor activities or changes in land usage. Tick activity is driven by many biotic and abiotic factors, some of which can be effectively managed to decrease risk of tick bites. In the USA, recommendations for landscape management, tick host control, and tick chemical control are well-defined for the applied purpose of reducing tick presence on private property. In Europe, where fewer studies have assessed tick management strategies, the similarity in ecological factors influencing vector presence suggests that approaches that work in USA may also be applicable. In this article we review key factors driving the tick exposure risk in Europe to select those most conducive to management for decreased tick-associated risk.

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“…Similarly, based on unpublished data collected by the Stamford (CT) Health Department for ticks submitted to The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station (CAES) for identification and pathogen testing between 1989 and 2001, Stafford (2007) reported that about 75% of the Lyme disease cases were probably associated with activities (play, yard, or garden work) around the home and, in addition, roughly 20% of the tick bites most likely were acquired in activities away from the home (Kirby Stafford III, CAES, personal communication). Another more recent study conducted in Connecticut similarly indicated that the majority of tick bites result from exposure on one’s own residential property (Mead et al 2015). Although these studies point to the residential property as the source of most human encounters with I. scapularis nymphs in Lyme disease endemic areas of the Northeast, they provide very limited information about which specific portions of the properties that present the greatest risk for human–nymph encounters.…”

Section: Risk Measures Based On Collection Of Host-seeking Nymphs Fromentioning

confidence: 99%

Critical Evaluation of the Linkage Between Tick-Based Risk Measures and the Occurrence of Lyme Disease Cases: Table 1.

Eisen

2016

J Med Entomol

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The nymphal stage of the blacklegged tick, Ixodes scapularis Say, is considered the primary vector to humans in the eastern United States of the Lyme disease spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto. The abundance of infected host-seeking nymphs is commonly used to estimate the fundamental risk of human exposure to B. burgdorferi, for the purpose of environmental risk assessment and as an outcome measure when evaluating environmentally based tick or pathogen control methods. However, as this tick-based risk measure does not consider the likelihoods of either human encounters with infected ticks or tick bites resulting in pathogen transmission, its linkage to the occurrence of Lyme disease cases is worth evaluating. In this Forum article, we describe different tick-based risk measures, discuss their strengths and weaknesses, and review the evidence for their capacity to predict the occurrence of Lyme disease cases. We conclude that: 1) the linkage between abundance of host-seeking B. burgdorferi-infected nymphs and Lyme disease occurrence is strong at community or county scales but weak at the fine spatial scale of residential properties where most human exposures to infected nymphs occur in Northeast, 2) the combined use of risk measures based on infected nymphs collected from the environment and ticks collected from humans is preferable to either one of these risk measures used singly when assessing the efficacy of environmentally based tick or pathogen control methods aiming to reduce the risk of human exposure to B. burgdorferi, 3) there is a need for improved risk assessment methodology for residential properties that accounts for both the abundance of infected nymphs and the likelihood of human–tick contact, and 4) we need to better understand how specific human activities conducted in defined residential microhabitats relate to risk for nymphal exposures and bites.

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Risk factors for tick exposure in suburban settings in the Northeastern United States

Cited by 75 publications

References 27 publications

Tick Bite Risk as a Socio-Spatial Representation—An Exploratory Study in Massif Central, France

Tick Bite Risk as a Socio-Spatial Representation—An Exploratory Study in Massif Central, France

Management Options for Ixodes ricinus-Associated Pathogens: A Review of Prevention Strategies

Critical Evaluation of the Linkage Between Tick-Based Risk Measures and the Occurrence of Lyme Disease Cases: Table 1.

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