ArticleApplied and environmental microbiology2015
An Invasive Mammal (the Gray Squirrel, Sciurus carolinensis) Commonly Hosts Diverse and Atypical Genotypes of the Zoonotic Pathogen Borrelia burgdorferi Sensu Lato.
Article in Applied and environmental microbiology, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers.
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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.
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Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 33 citations in OpenAlex.
- Invasive Alien Species of European Union Concern: A Systematic Review of High-Priority Pathogens in 22 Species in a One Health Framework.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2026Review
- Article
- Spatial and temporal heterogeneity of the density of Borrelia burgdorferi-infected Ixodes ricinus ticks across a landscape: A 5-year study in southern England.Medical and veterinary entomology · 2022Article
- No net effect of host density on tick-borne disease hazard due to opposing roles of vector amplification and pathogen dilution.Ecology and evolution · 2022Article
- The Role of Ticks in the Emergence ofMicroorganisms · 2021Review
- Review
- Occurrence of tick-borne pathogens in questing Ixodes ricinus ticks from Wester Ross, Northwest Scotland.Parasites & vectors · 2021Article
- Perpetuation of Borreliae.Current issues in molecular biology · 2021Article
- Invasive alien species and disease risk: An open challenge in public and animal health.PLoS pathogens · 2020Review
- Genospecies of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato detected in 16 mammal species and questing ticks from northern Europe.Scientific reports · 2019Article
- Landscape structure affects the prevalence and distribution of a tick-borne zoonotic pathogen.Parasites & vectors · 2018Article
- Assessment of the Public Health Threats Posed by Vector-Borne Disease in the United Kingdom (UK).International journal of environmental research and public health · 2018Article
- Effects of conservation management of landscapes and vertebrate communities on Lyme borreliosis risk in the United Kingdom.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2017Review
- Heterogeneity in the abundance and distribution of Ixodes ricinus and Borrelia burgdorferi (sensu lato) in Scotland: implications for risk prediction.Parasites & vectors · 2016Article
- Multiple independent transmission cycles of a tick-borne pathogen within a local host community.Scientific reports · 2016Article
- Modelling the seasonality of Lyme disease risk and the potential impacts of a warming climate within the heterogeneous landscapes of Scotland.Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2016Article
- Cross-Immunity and Community Structure of a Multiple-Strain Pathogen in the Tick Vector.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2015Article
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 5 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Invasive vertebrate species can act as hosts for endemic pathogens and may alter pathogen community composition and dynamics. For the zoonotic pathogen Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato, the agent of Lyme borreliosis, recent work shows invasive rodent species can be of high epidemiological importance and may support host-specific strains. This study examined the role of gray squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis) (n = 679), an invasive species in the United Kingdom, as B. burgdorferi sensu lato hosts. We found that gray squirrels were frequently infested with Ixodes ricinus, the main vector of B. burgdorferi sensu lato in the United Kingdom, and 11.9% were infected with B. burgdorferi sensu lato. All four genospecies that occur in the United Kingdom were detected in gray squirrels, and unexpectedly, the bird-associated genospecies Borrelia garinii was most common. The second most frequent infection was with Borrelia afzelii. Genotyping of B. garinii and B. afzelii produced no evidence for strains associated with gray squirrels. Generalized linear mixed models (GLMM) identified tick infestation and date of capture as significant factors associated with B. burgdorferi sensu lato infection in gray squirrels, with infection elevated in early summer in squirrels infested with ticks. Invasive gray squirrels appear to become infected with locally circulating strains of B. burgdorferi sensu lato, and further studies are required to determine their role in community disease dynamics. Our findings highlight the fact that the role of introduced host species in B. burgdorferi sensu lato epidemiology can be highly variable and thus difficult to predict.
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