ArticleParasites & vectors2020
Effect of rodent density on tick and tick-borne pathogen populations: consequences for infectious disease risk.
Article in Parasites & vectors, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 52 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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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
52 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 111 citations in OpenAlex.
- Anaplasma Phagocytophilum, a Zoonotic Vector-Borne Bacterial Species in Rodents and Its Associated Tick Vector: Systematic Review.Veterinary medicine and science · 2025Pooled it
- Current Knowledge on Tick-Borne Encephalitis Virus Interaction with Ticks: Acquisition, Dissemination, and Persistence.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Seasonal variation in prevalence of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato and Neoehrlichia mikurensis in Ixodes ricinus nymphs in southern Norway.Acta veterinaria Scandinavica · 2026Article
- Ecoepidemiological determinants of Borrelia infection in sigmodontine rodents from the Delta and Parana Islands ecoregion, Argentina.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Beyond density: Environmental and dietary drivers of endoparasite burden in overabundant red deer populations.Parasitology research · 2026Article
- Lyme borreliosis incidence in relation to mammalian abundance, climate, and landscape characteristics in a boreal area.Parasites & vectors · 2025Article
- Wild mammals as hosts ofInternational journal for parasitology. Parasites and wildlife · 2025Review
- Spiroplasma ixodetis in Ticks Removed from Humans, Sweden and Åland Islands, Finland.Emerging infectious diseases · 2025Article
- Detection of Tick-Borne Microorganisms, Anaplasmataceae and Piroplasmida, inMicroorganisms · 2025Article
- Influence of forest structural complexity on small mammal body condition and its impact on tick burden and pathogen prevalence.Parasites & vectors · 2025Article
- Article
- Tick Control Strategies: Critical Insights into Chemical, Biological, Physical, and Integrated Approaches for Effective Hard Tick Management.Veterinary sciences · 2025Review
- A Retrospective Report on the Infestation and Distribution of Chiggers on an Endemic Rodent Species (Veterinary sciences · 2024Article
- Molecular detection of some zoonotic tick-borne pathogens in ticks collected from camels (Camelus dromedarius) as hosts and wild rodents as potential reservoirs.Veterinary research communications · 2024Article
- High habitat richness reduces the risk of tick-borne encephalitis in Europe: A multi-scale study.One health (Amsterdam, Netherlands) · 2024Article
- Assessing the potential impact of livestock immunisation and acaricide use on controlling the spread of East Coast fever.Parasite epidemiology and control · 2024Article
- Effects of rodent abundance on ticks and Borrelia: results from an experimental and observational study in an island system.Parasites & vectors · 2024Observational
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- Article
- Differential associations of horizontally and vertically transmitted symbionts on Ixodes ricinus behaviour and physiology.Parasites & vectors · 2023Article
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 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundRodents are considered to contribute strongly to the risk of tick-borne diseases by feeding Ixodes ricinus larvae and by acting as amplifying hosts for pathogens. Here, we tested to what extent these two processes depend on rodent density, and for which pathogen species rodents synergistically contribute to the local disease risk, i.e. the density of infected nymphs (DIN).
methodsIn a natural woodland, we manipulated rodent densities in plots of 2500 m
resultsInvestigation of data from all plots, irrespective of the treatment, revealed a strong positive association between rodent density and nymphal density, nymphal infection prevalence (NIP) with Borrelia afzelii and Neoehrlichia mikurensis, and hence DIN's of these pathogens in the following year. The NIP, but not the DIN, of the bird-associated Borrelia garinii, decreased with increasing rodent density. The NIPs of Borrelia miyamotoi and Rickettsia helvetica were independent of rodent density, and increasing rodent density moderately increased the DINs. In addition, NIPs of Babesia microti and Spiroplasma ixodetis decreased with increasing rodent density, which had a non-linear association with DINs of these microorganisms.
conclusionsA positive density dependence for all rodent- and tick-associated tick-borne pathogens was found, despite the observation that some of them decreased in prevalence. The effects on the DINs were variable among microorganisms, more than likely due to contrasts in their biology (including transmission modes, host specificity and transmission efficiency). The strongest associations were found in rodent-associated pathogens that most heavily rely on horizontal transmission. Our results draw attention to the importance of considering transmission mode of a pathogen while developing preventative measures to successfully reduce the burden of disease.
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Registered trials
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.