Measuring tick risk along an urbanization gradient

Lyme disease (LD) is the most commonly reported vector-borne disease with an estimated at 476,000 cases per year in the US. LD cases continue to increase locally and expand geographically following the spread of Ixodes scapularis despite interventions available to target the vector, hosts, or implementation of personal prevention measures. 

Targeting interventions to populations most at-risk for LD is challenged by the spatial and population-level heterogeneity in overall risk. Previous LD risk assessments have either been based on tick surveillance (hazard) or coarse-scale human incidence data alone and often fail to account for integrating the compound effect of the ‘hazard’ (the density of Borrelia-infected ticks) and behavioral and socio-demographic factors associated with human exposure to the hazard.

Additionally, urban populations may be more at risk of exposure and LD risk when traveling to areas with greater tick densities due to increased health vulnerability. Furthermore, the relationship between LD risk and population knowledge, attitude, perceptions and practices (KAPP) is poorly understood, with a potential mismatch between actual and perceived hazard/exposure that can impact the uptake and outcome of interventions.

This project will:

• identify how landscape composition and configuration influences LD risk across wide gradients in urban intensity, greenspace connectivity, wealth, and land stewardship in the urbanized areas across metropolitan areas using tick sampling;  
• assess KAPP behaviors and human-tick contact and human movement-patterns at a fine spatial and temporal scale using The Tick App. 

These tools will allow us to measure risk patterns in areas with highly heterogeneous hazards associated with residential- or recreational-associated tick encounters as well as more accurately capture travel history and travel-associated exposure to ticks.

Read more about this project here.