ArticlePloS one2014
Life history and demographic drivers of reservoir competence for three tick-borne zoonotic pathogens.
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 60 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
60 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 134 citations in OpenAlex.
- Are we overestimating risk of enteric pathogen spillover from wild birds to humans?Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2020Pooled it
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- Assembled and annotated reference genome and demographic history of the eastern chipmunk (Tamias striatus).Molecular genetics and genomics : MGG · 2026Article
- Scientist's Opinion on Climate Change and Hard Ticks (Ixodidae).Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- TICKHUNTER: A Targeted Hybridization-Capture Sequencing Approach for the Detection and Characterization of Tick-borne Pathogens and Blood Meals.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
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- Rodent species composition in urban and forested areas in eastern Germany.Biodiversity data journal · 2025Article
- What makes a host a good reservoir? Determinants of the reservoir potential ofVirus evolution · 2025Article
- Host-pathogen associations inferred from bloodmeal analyses ofApplied and environmental microbiology · 2024Article
- Abiotic and biotic factors jointly influence the contact and environmental transmission of a generalist pathogen.Ecology and evolution · 2024Article
- Tick-borne zoonotic flaviviruses andOne health (Amsterdam, Netherlands) · 2024Review
- Diversity and host specificity ofInfection and immunity · 2024Article
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- Experimental assessment of cross-species transmission in a natural multihost-multivector-multipathogen community.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2023Article
- Phylogenetic and biogeographical traits predict unrecognized hosts of zoonotic leishmaniasis.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2023Article
- Reservoir population ecology, viral evolution and the risk of emerging infectious disease.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2022Article
- Article
- Urban-adapted mammal species have more known pathogens.Nature ecology & evolution · 2022Article
- Is composition of vertebrates an indicator of the prevalence of tick-borne pathogens?Infection ecology & epidemiology · 2022Article
- Low mammalian species richness is associated with Kyasanur Forest disease outbreak risk in deforested landscapes in the Western Ghats, India.One health (Amsterdam, Netherlands) · 2021Article
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 5 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Animal and plant species differ dramatically in their quality as hosts for multi-host pathogens, but the causes of this variation are poorly understood. A group of small mammals, including small rodents and shrews, are among the most competent natural reservoirs for three tick-borne zoonotic pathogens, Borrelia burgdorferi, Babesia microti, and Anaplasma phagocytophilum, in eastern North America. For a group of nine commonly-infected mammals spanning >2 orders of magnitude in body mass, we asked whether life history features or surrogates for (unknown) encounter rates with ticks, predicted reservoir competence for each pathogen. Life history features associated with a fast pace of life generally were positively correlated with reservoir competence. However, a model comparison approach revealed that host population density, as a proxy for encounter rates between hosts and pathogens, generally received more support than did life history features. The specific life history features and the importance of host population density differed somewhat between the different pathogens. We interpret these results as supporting two alternative but non-exclusive hypotheses for why ecologically widespread, synanthropic species are often the most competent reservoirs for multi-host pathogens. First, multi-host pathogens might adapt to those hosts they are most likely to experience, which are likely to be the most abundant and/or frequently bitten by tick vectors. Second, species with fast life histories might allocate less to certain immune defenses, which could increase their reservoir competence. Results suggest that of the host species that might potentially be exposed, those with comparatively high population densities, small bodies, and fast pace of life will often be keystone reservoirs that should be targeted for surveillance or management.
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