| differential exposure to anaplasma phagocytophilum in rodent species in northern california. | anaplasma phagocytophilum is a zoonotic tick-borne rickettsial pathogen that causes granulocytic anaplasmosis (ga) in humans, horses, and dogs. in california, dusky-footed woodrats (neotoma fuscipes) are a putative reservoir host, and ixodes pacificus is a vector for transmission from rodents to humans, dogs, and horses. cases are clustered in coastal and sierra nevada foothill regions, but not necessarily in proximity to infected woodrats. this study was designed to compare exposures and active ... | 2008 | 18047398 |
| plague studies in california: a review of long-term disease activity, flea-host relationships and plague ecology in the coniferous forests of the southern cascades and northern sierra nevada mountains. | we review 28 years of long-term surveillance (1970-1997) for plague activity among wild rodents from ten locations within three coniferous forest habitat types in the northern sierra nevada and the southern cascade mountains of northeastern california. we identify rodent hosts and their fleas and document long-term plague activity in each habitat type. the highest seroprevalence for yersinia pestis occurred in the chipmunks, tamias senex and t. quadrimaculatus, and the pine squirrel, tamiasciuru ... | 2010 | 20618641 |
| serologic evidence for borrelia hermsii infection in rodents on federally owned recreational areas in california. | tick-borne relapsing fever (tbrf) is endemic in mountainous regions of the western united states. in california, the principal agent is the spirochete borrelia hermsii, which is transmitted by the argasid tick ornithodoros hermsi. humans are at risk of tbrf when infected ticks leave an abandoned rodent nest in quest of a blood meal. rodents are the primary vertebrate hosts for b. hermsii. sciurid rodents were collected from 23 sites in california between august, 2006, and september, 2008, and te ... | 2013 | 23488454 |
| distribution and prevalence of vector-borne diseases in california chipmunks (tamias spp.). | california, with 13 chipmunk (tamias) species, has more than any other state or country, occupying habitats ranging from chaparral to the high peaks of the sierra nevada. chipmunks host zoonotic pathogens including yersinia pestis, anaplasma phagocytophilum, relapsing fever (rf) borrelia spp., borrelia burgdorferi, and spotted fever group (sfg) rickettsia species. chipmunk species are often not differentiated by public health workers, yet different species utilize different ecological niches and ... | 2017 | 29232397 |
| unlocking the vault: next-generation museum population genomics. | natural history museum collections provide unique resources for understanding how species respond to environmental change, including the abrupt, anthropogenic climate change of the past century. ideally, researchers would conduct genome-scale screening of museum specimens to explore the evolutionary consequences of environmental changes, but to date such analyses have been severely limited by the numerous challenges of working with the highly degraded dna typical of historic samples. here, we ci ... | 2013 | 24118668 |
| forest rodents provide directed dispersal of jeffrey pine seeds. | some species of animals provide directed dispersal of plant seeds by transporting them nonrandomly to microsites where their chances of producing healthy seedlings are enhanced. we investigated whether this mutualistic interaction occurs between granivorous rodents and jeffrey pine (pinus jeffreyi) in the eastern sierra nevada by comparing the effectiveness of random abiotic seed dispersal with the dispersal performed by four species of rodents: deer mice (peromyscus maniculatus), yellow-pine an ... | 2009 | 19341138 |