Human-mediated landscape change is a major driver of tick-borne disease risk (Allan et al. 2003, Diuk-Wasser et al. 2020). An opportunity to explore the effects of landscape change on the emergence of tick-borne diseases (TBDs) transmitted by the lone star tick exists in the Saint Louis, MO region, which represents a typical urban-to-rural human land-use gradient. In 2009-2011, a research group led by Brian Allan repeatedly sampled ticks and tick-borne pathogens from 32 sites spanning this gradient in human land-use in the Saint Louis Metropolitan area (Allan et al. 2010). In this study, UIUC graduate student Derek McFarland will travel to the same 32 sites across this human land-use gradient to further investigate the abundance and pathogen infection rate of lone star ticks, and the abundances of key reservoir hosts such as white-tailed deer. This presents a novel opportunity to explore how ongoing land-use change may influence vector-borne disease risk relative to historical estimates, a topic that has not yet been investigated in previous studies. Derek will compare his findings to measurements taken a decade prior to further understand how ongoing changes in land-use influence disease risk to humans.
Effects of human-mediated landscape change on tick-borne disease risk in St. Louis