ArticlePloS one2014
Co-infection of blacklegged ticks with Babesia microti and Borrelia burgdorferi is higher than expected and acquired from small mammal hosts.
Article in PloS one, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 94 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
94 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 147 citations in OpenAlex.
- Human pathogens associated with the blacklegged tick Ixodes scapularis: a systematic review.Parasites & vectors · 2016Pooled it
- Abundance and infection rates of Ixodes scapularis nymphs collected from residential properties in Lyme disease-endemic areas of Connecticut, Maryland, and New York.Journal of vector ecology : journal of the Society for Vector Ecology · 2015Trial
- The ecology of Lyme disease: Long-term data, surprises, and a synthesis.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Coinfection ecology and pathogen emergence in aApplied and environmental microbiology · 2026Article
- Contrasting epigenetics of Ixodes scapularis populations.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Article
- Ecological and Epidemiological Consequences of Tick-Control Interventions in Residential Neighborhoods: A Synthesis of The Tick Project.Transboundary and emerging diseases · 2026Review
- Coinfection Ecology and Pathogen Emergence in amedRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2025Article
- Assessing Simultaneous Infection with Multiple Pathogens via Group Testing with Imperfect Multiplex Assays.Journal of agricultural, biological, and environmental statistics · 2025Article
- Human babesiosis: The past, present and future.Expert reviews in molecular medicine · 2025Review
- Investigation of the Blood Microbiome in Horses With Fever of Unknown Origin.Veterinary medicine and science · 2025Article
- Prevalence ofMicroorganisms · 2024Article
- Molecular detection of Coxiella burnetii in blood and hard tick-infested Egyptian camels and the possibility of coinfections.Tropical animal health and production · 2024Article
- Host-pathogen associations inferred from bloodmeal analyses ofApplied and environmental microbiology · 2024Article
- The prevalence of pathogens in ticks collected from humans in Belgium, 2021, versus 2017.Parasites & vectors · 2024Article
- DoTropical medicine and infectious disease · 2024Article
- Effects of residential acaricide treatments on patterns of pathogen coinfection in blacklegged ticks.Parasitology · 2024Article
- Co-Occurrence ofPathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Coinfection ofPathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Tick diversity and molecular detection ofFrontiers in veterinary science · 2024Article
34 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors at 6 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Humans in the northeastern and midwestern United States are at increasing risk of acquiring tickborne diseases--not only Lyme disease, but also two emerging diseases, human granulocytic anaplasmosis and human babesiosis. Co-infection with two or more of these pathogens can increase the severity of health impacts. The risk of co-infection is intensified by the ecology of these three diseases because all three pathogens (Borrelia burgdorferi, Anaplasma phagocytophilum, and Babesia microti) are transmitted by the same vector, blacklegged ticks (Ixodes scapularis), and are carried by many of the same reservoir hosts. The risk of exposure to multiple pathogens from a single tick bite and the sources of co-infected ticks are not well understood. In this study, we quantify the risk of co-infection by measuring infection prevalence in 4,368 questing nymphs throughout an endemic region for all three diseases (Dutchess County, NY) to determine if co-infections occur at frequencies other than predicted by independent assortment of pathogens. Further, we identify sources of co-infection by quantifying rates of co-infection on 3,275 larval ticks fed on known hosts. We find significant deviations of levels of co-infection in questing nymphs, most notably 83% more co-infection with Babesia microti and Borrelia burgdorferi than predicted by chance alone. Further, this pattern of increased co-infection was observed in larval ticks that fed on small mammal hosts, but not on meso-mammal, sciurid, or avian hosts. Co-infections involving A. phagocytophilum were less common, and fewer co-infections of A. phagocytophilum and B. microti than predicted by chance were observed in both questing nymphs and larvae fed on small mammals. Medical practitioners should be aware of the elevated risk of B. microti/B. burgdorferi co-infection.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.