Publications

parasitic and phoretic arthropods of sylvatic and commensal white-footed mice (peromyscus leucopus) in central tennessee, with notes on lyme disease.	sixteen species of parasitic or phoretic arthropods were collected from 56 white-footed mice, peromyscus leucopus, live-trapped in central tennessee from april through november 1987. arthropod infestation was compared for mice taken from sylvatic (woodland) versus commensal (household) habitats. three species were recorded from hosts in both habitats: the sucking louse hoplopleura hesperomydis, the flea epitedia wenmanni, and the laelapid mite androlaelaps casalis. twelve of the 13 remaining art ...	1991	2010854
reported distribution of ixodes scapularis and ixodes pacificus (acari: ixodidae) in the united states.	lyme disease, caused by infection with borrelia burgdorferi, is the most frequently reported arthropod-borne disease in the united states. to develop a national map of the distribution of the vectors of b. burgdorferi to humans (ixodes scapularis say and ixodes pacificus cooley & kohls ticks), we sent questionnaires to acarologists, health officials, and lyme disease researchers; surveyed the 1966-1996 medline data base; and reviewed 1907-1995 national tick collection data. tick collection metho ...	1998	9775584
detection of borrelia lonestari in amblyomma americanum (acari: ixodidae) from tennessee.	genetic sequences characteristic of borrelia lonestari (barbour et al. 1996) were detected in two pools of adult amblyomma americanum (l.) from tennessee, corresponding to an estimated minimum field infection rate of 8.4 infected ticks/1000 adults. dna amplification was conducted using primers derived from the b. lonestari flagellin gene that would also amplify borrelia burgdorferi (johnson, schmid, hyde, steigerwalt, and brenner). species-specific, internal probes were then used to differentiat ...	2003	12597661
detection of borrelia burgdorferi and borrelia lonestari in birds in tennessee.	lyme disease in the united states is caused by the bacterial spirochete borrelia burgdorferi s.s. (johnson, schmid, hyde, steigerwalt, and brenner), which is transmitted by tick vectors ixodes scapularis (say) and i. pacificus (cooley and kohls). borrelia lonestari, transmitted by the tick amblyomma americanum l., may be associated with a related syndrome, southern tick-associated rash illness (stari). borrelia lonestari sequences, reported primarily in the southeastern states, have also been de ...	2009	19198527
comparing spatio-temporal clusters of arthropod-borne infections using administrative medical claims and state reported surveillance data.	considered separately, notifiable disease registries and medical claims data have certain advantages (e.g., consistent case definitions and electronic records, respectively) and limitations (e.g., incomplete reporting and coding errors, respectively) within disease outbreak research. combined however, these data could provide a more complete source of information. using a retrospective space-time permutation scan statistic, zoonotic case information from a state registry system (tdh) was compare ...	2012	22749206
borrelia burgdorferi not detected in widespread ixodes scapularis (acari: ixodidae) collected from white-tailed deer in tennessee.	lyme disease (ld), caused by the bacterium borrelia burgdorferi and transmitted in the eastern united states by blacklegged ticks, ixodes scapularis say, is classified as nonendemic in tennessee and surrounding states in the southeast. low incidence of ld in these states has been attributed, in part, to vector ticks being scarce or absent; however, tick survey data for many counties are incomplete or out of date. to improve our knowledge of the distribution, abundance, and borrelia spp. prevalen ...	2012	23270178
prevalence of five tick-borne bacterial genera in adult ixodes scapularis removed from white-tailed deer in western tennessee.	in the northeastern and midwestern regions of the united states ixodes scapularis say transmits the causal agents of anaplasmosis (anaplasma phagocytophilum), babesiosis (babesia microti), and borreliosis (borrelia burgdorferi and b. miyamotoi). in the southeastern united states, none of those pathogens are considered endemic and two other tick-borne diseases (tbds) (ehrlicihosis and rickettiosis) are more common. our objective was to determine baseline presence and absence data for three non-en ...	2014	25331818
different populations of blacklegged tick nymphs exhibit differences in questing behavior that have implications for human lyme disease risk.	animal behavior can have profound effects on pathogen transmission and disease incidence. we studied the questing (= host-seeking) behavior of blacklegged tick (ixodes scapularis) nymphs, which are the primary vectors of lyme disease in the eastern united states. lyme disease is common in northern but not in southern regions, and prior ecological studies have found that standard methods used to collect host-seeking nymphs in northern regions are unsuccessful in the south. this led us to hypothes ...	2015	25996603
enhancing lyme disease surveillance by using administrative claims data, tennessee, usa.	lyme disease is underreported in the united states. we used insurance administrative claims data to determine the value of such data in enhancing case ascertainment in tennessee during january 2011-june 2013. although we identified ≈20% more cases of lyme disease (5/year), the method was resource intensive and not sustainable in this low-incidence state.	2015	26291336