Publications

ecological niche modeling of lyme disease in british columbia, canada.	the purpose of this study was to describe the geographic distribution and model the ecological niche for borrelia burgdorferi (johnson, schmidt, hyde, steigerwaldt & brenner), ixodes pacificus (cooley & kohls), and ixodes angustus (neumann), the bacterium and primary tick vectors for lyme disease, in british columbia (bc), canada. we employed a landscape epidemiology approach using geographic information systems mapping and ecological niche modeling (genetic algorithm for rule-set prediction) to ...	2010	20180315
community ecology and disease risk: lizards, squirrels, and the lyme disease spirochete in california, usa.	vector-borne zoonotic diseases are often maintained in complex transmission cycles involving multiple vertebrate hosts and their arthropod vectors. in the state of california, u.s.a., the spirochete borrelia burgdorferi, which causes lyme disease, is transmitted between vertebrate hosts by the western black-legged tick, ixodes pacificus. several mammalian species serve as reservoir hosts of the spirochete, but levels of tick infestation, reservoir competence, and borrelia-infection prevalence va ...	2010	20380218
impact of the experimental removal of lizards on lyme disease risk.	the distribution of vector meals in the host community is an important element of understanding and predicting vector-borne disease risk. lizards (such as the western fence lizard; sceloporus occidentalis) play a unique role in lyme disease ecology in the far-western united states. lizards rather than mammals serve as the blood meal hosts for a large fraction of larval and nymphal western black-legged ticks (ixodes pacificus-the vector for lyme disease in that region) but are not competent reser ...	2011	21325326
influence of abiotic and environmental factors on the density and infection prevalence of ixodes pacificus (acari:ixodidae) with borrelia burgdorferi.	the abiotic and biotic factors that govern the spatial distribution of lyme disease vectors are poorly understood. this study addressed the influence of abiotic and biotic environmental variables on ixodes pacificus cooley & kohls (acari:ixodidae) nymphs, because it is the primary vector of borrelia burgdorferi johnson, schmidt, hyde, steigerwaldt & brenner in the far-western united states. three metrics of lyme disease risk were evaluated: the density of nymphs, the density of infected nymphs, ...	2011	21337944