Release the hens: a study on the complexities of guinea fowl as tick control.

Established tick control strategies often involve methods that can be damaging to existing environmental conditions or natural host ecology. To find more environmentally friendly methods, biological controls, like predators of ticks, have been suggested. There are natural predators of ticks, but most are generalists and not expected to control tick populations.

Use of mammalian museum specimens to test hypotheses about the geographic expansion of Lyme disease in the southeastern United States.

Lyme disease, caused primarily in North America by the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto, is the most frequently reported vector-borne disease in North America and its geographic extent is increasing in all directions from foci in the northeastern and north central United States. Several southeastern states, including Virginia and North Carolina, have experienced large increases in Lyme disease incidence in the past two decades, with the biggest changes in incidence occurring in the western portion of each state. We tested the hypothesis that B.

Prevalence and Genetic Diversity of Bartonella Spp. in Northern Bats (Eptesicus nilssonii) and Their Blood-Sucking Ectoparasites in Hokkaido, Japan.

We investigated the prevalence of Bartonella in 123 northern bats (Eptesicus nilssonii) and their ectoparasites from Hokkaido, Japan. A total of 174 bat fleas (Ischnopsyllus needhami) and two bat bugs (Cimex japonicus) were collected from the bats. Bartonella bacteria were isolated from 32 (26.

No evidence for enzootic plague within black-tailed prairie dog (Cynomys ludovicianus) populations.

Yersinia pestis, causative agent of plague, occurs throughout the western United States in rodent populations and periodically causes epizootics in susceptible species, including black-tailed prairie dogs (Cynomys ludovicianus). How Y. pestis persists long-term in the environment between these epizootics is poorly understood but multiple mechanisms have been proposed, including, among others, a separate enzootic transmission cycle that maintains Y.

Vector-Borne Pathogens in Ectoparasites Collected from High-Elevation Pika Populations.

The American pika, Ochotona princeps, is projected to decline throughout North America as climate change reduces its range, and pikas have already disappeared from several locations. In addition to climate, disease spillover from lower elevation mammalian species might affect pikas. We sampled pika fleas in Colorado and Montana across elevations ranging from 2896 to 3612 m and screened them for the presence of DNA from rodent-associated bacterial pathogens (Bartonella species and Yersinia pestis) to test the hypothesis that flea exchange between pikas and rodents may lead to occurrence of rodent-associated pathogens in pika ectoparasites.

Detection of Zoonotic Bartonella Pathogens in Rabbit Fleas, Colorado, USA.

We detected 3 Bartonella species in wild rabbit fleas from Colorado, USA: B. vinsonii subsp. berkhoffii (n = 16), B.

Evaluation of the antioxidant activities of fatty polyhydroquinolines synthesized by Hantzsch multicomponent reactions.

Polyhydroquinolines (PHQs) are the unsymmetrical Hantzsch derivatives of 1,4-dihydropyridines with several biological applications. In this work, new fatty 2- and 3-substituted PHQ derivatives from different fatty acids and fatty alcohol feedstocks were synthesized at good yields a four-component reaction (4CR). The antioxidant activities of fatty PHQs were investigated using three different antioxidant methods.

Life history characteristics of birds influence patterns of tick parasitism.

Birds serve as reservoirs for tick-borne pathogens as well as hosts for multiple tick species of public health relevance.  Birds may perpetuate life cycles of vectors and vector-borne pathogens and disperse disease vectors over long distances, supplementing populations at range margins or seeding invading populations beyond the edges of current tick distributions.  Our goal for this study was to identify life history characteristics of birds that most strongly affect tick parasitism.

Synthesis and antitumoral activity of novel analogues monastrol-fatty acids against glioma cells.

Monastrol is a small cell-permeable heterocyclic molecule that is recognized as an inhibitor of mitotic kinesin Eg5. Heterocyclic-fatty acid derivatives are a new class of compounds with a broad range of biological activities. This work describes a comparative study of the antitumoral activity of a series of new long-chain monastrol analogues against rat glioblastoma cells.

Using Landscape Analysis to Test Hypotheses about Drivers of Tick Abundance and Infection Prevalence with Borrelia burgdorferi.

Patterns of vector-borne disease risk are changing globally in space and time and elevated disease risk of vector-borne infection can be driven by anthropogenic modification of the environment. Incidence of Lyme disease, caused by the bacterium sensu stricto, has risen in a number of locations in North America and this increase may be driven by spatially or numerically expanding populations of the primary tick vector, . We used a model selection approach to identify habitat fragmentation and land-use/land cover variables to test the hypothesis that the amount and configuration of forest cover at spatial scales relevant to deer, the primary hosts of adult ticks, would be the predominant determinants of tick abundance.

Borrelia miyamotoi, Other Vector-Borne Agents in Cat Blood and Ticks in Eastern Maryland.

We collected blood and tick samples in eastern Maryland to quantify vector-borne pathogen exposure and infection in healthy cats and to assess occupational disease risk to veterinary professionals and others who regularly interact with household pets. Thirty-six percent of healthy cats parasitized by ticks at time of examination (9/25) were exposed to, and 14% of bloods (7/49) tested PCR-positive for, at least one vector-borne pathogen including several bloods and ticks with Borrelia miyamotoi, a recently recognized tick-borne zoonotic bacterium. There was no indication that high tick burdens were associated with exposure to vector-borne pathogens.

Ticks and tick-borne pathogens of dogs along an elevational and land-use gradient in Chiriquí province, Panamá.

Systematic acarological surveys are useful tools in assessing risk to tick-borne infections, especially in areas where consistent clinical surveillance for tick-borne disease is lacking. Our goal was to identify environmental predictors of tick burdens on dogs and tick-borne infectious agents in dog-derived ticks in the Chiriquí Province of western Panama to draw inferences about spatio-temporal variation in human risk to tick-borne diseases. We used a model-selection approach to test the relative importance of elevation, human population size, vegetative cover, and change in landuse on patterns of tick parasitism on dogs.

Ecological Traits Driving the Outbreaks and Emergence of Zoonotic Pathogens.

Infectious diseases that are transmitted from wildlife hosts to humans, such as the Ebola virus and MERS virus, can be difficult to understand because the pathogens emerge from complex multifaceted ecological interactions. We use a wildlife-pathogen system-prairie dogs (Cynomys ludovicianus) and the plague bacterium (Yersinia pestis)-to describe aspects of disease ecology that apply to many cases of emerging infectious disease. We show that the monitoring and surveillance of hosts and vectors during the buildup to disease outbreaks are crucial for understanding pathogen-transmission dynamics and that a community-ecology framework is important to identify reservoir hosts.

Geographic Expansion of Lyme Disease in the Southeastern United States, 2000-2014.

Background.  The majority of Lyme disease cases in the United States are acquired on the east coast between northern Virginia and New England. In recent years the geographic extent of Lyme disease has been expanding, raising the prospect of Lyme disease becoming endemic in the southeast.

Variation in the Microbiota of Ixodes Ticks with Regard to Geography, Species, and Sex.

Ixodes scapularis is the principal vector of Lyme disease on the East Coast and in the upper Midwest regions of the United States, yet the tick is also present in the Southeast, where Lyme disease is absent or rare. A closely related species, I. affinis, also carries the pathogen in the South but does not seem to transmit it to humans.

Lyme disease, Virginia, USA, 2000-2011.

Lyme disease, caused by the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi and transmitted in the eastern United States by the black-legged tick (Ixodes scapularis), is increasing in incidence and expanding geographically. Recent environmental modeling based on extensive field collections of host-seeking I. scapularis ticks predicted a coastal distribution of ticks in mid-Atlantic states and an elevational limit of 510 m.

Population genetic structure of the Lyme disease vector Ixodes scapularis at an apparent spatial expansion front.

Modeling and empirical evidence suggests that Lyme disease is undergoing geographic expansion from principal foci in the midwestern and northeastern United States. Virginia is at the southern edge of the current expansion zone and has seen dramatic rise in human Lyme disease cases since 2007, potentially owing to a recent increase in vector abundance. Ixodes scapularis is known throughout the eastern US but behavioral or physiological variation between northern and southern lineages might lead northern-variant ticks to more frequently parasitize humans.

Lyme disease risk not amplified in a species-poor vertebrate community: similar Borrelia burgdorferi tick infection prevalence and OspC genotype frequencies.

The effect of biodiversity declines on human health is currently debated, but empirical assessments are lacking. Lyme disease provides a model system to assess relationships between biodiversity and human disease because the etiologic agent, Borrelia burgdorferi, is transmitted in the United States by the generalist black-legged tick (Ixodes scapularis) among a wide range of mammalian and avian hosts. The 'dilution effect' hypothesis predicts that species-poor host communities dominated by white-footed mice (Peromyscus leucopus) will pose the greatest human risk because P.

Empiric antibiotic treatment of erythema migrans-like skin lesions as a function of geography: a clinical and cost effectiveness modeling study.

The skin lesion of early Lyme disease, erythema migrans (EM), is so characteristic that routine practice is to treat all such patients with antibiotics. Because other skin lesions may resemble EM, it is not known whether presumptive treatment of EM is appropriate in regions where Lyme disease is rare. We constructed a decision model to compare the cost and clinical effectiveness of three strategies for the management of EM: Treat All, Observe, and Serology as a function of the probability that an EM-like lesion is Lyme disease.

Human risk of infection with Borrelia burgdorferi, the Lyme disease agent, in eastern United States.

The geographic pattern of human risk for infection with Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto, the tick-borne pathogen that causes Lyme disease, was mapped for the eastern United States. The map is based on standardized field sampling in 304 sites of the density of Ixodes scapularis host-seeking nymphs infected with B. burgdorferi, which is closely associated with human infection risk.

Regional variation in immature Ixodes scapularis parasitism on North American songbirds: implications for transmission of the Lyme pathogen, Borrelia burgdorferi.

Borrelia burgdorferi, the etiological agent of Lyme disease, is transmitted among hosts by the black-legged tick, Ixodes scapularis, a species that regularly parasitizes various vertebrate hosts, including birds, in its immature stages. Lyme disease risk in the United States is highest in the Northeast and in the upper Midwest where I. scapularis ticks are most abundant.

Genotypic diversity of Borrelia burgdorferi strains detected in Ixodes scapularis larvae collected from North American songbirds.

We genotyped Borrelia burgdorferi strains detected in larvae of Ixodes scapularis removed from songbirds and compared them with those found in host-seeking I. scapularis nymphs sampled throughout the eastern United States. Birds are capable of transmitting most known genotypes, albeit at different frequencies than expected based on genotypes found among host-seeking nymphs.

Population genetic structure of the prairie dog flea and plague vector, Oropsylla hirsuta.

Oropsylla hirsuta is the primary flea of the black-tailed prairie dog and is a vector of the plague bacterium, Yersinia pestis. We examined the population genetic structure of O. hirsuta fleas collected from 11 prairie dog colonies, 7 of which had experienced a plague-associated die-off in 1994.

Detection of multiple Bartonella species in digestive and reproductive tissues of fleas collected from sympatric mammals.

At least 12 species in the genus Bartonella are zoonotic pathogens that may be transmitted among mammalian hosts by fleas or other arthropods. Apparent host specificity by some Bartonella species to mammalian hosts has been observed, and the detection of multiple Bartonella species in mammalian fleas suggests that fleas take bloodmeals from a variety of host species. However, many flea species are observed to parasitize a narrow host range.