Differential burdens of blacklegged ticks ( on sympatric rodent hosts.

In the United States, there has been a steady increase in diagnosed cases of tick-borne diseases in people, most notably Lyme disease. The pathogen that causes Lyme disease, is transmitted by the blacklegged tick (). Several small mammals are considered key reservoirs of this pathogen and are frequently-used hosts by blacklegged ticks. However, limited studies have evaluated between-species host use by ticks. This study compared burdens and tick-associated pathogen presence in wild-caught (southern red-backed voles) and spp. (white-footed mice) in forested areas where the habitat of both species overlapped. Rodent trapping data collected over two summers showed a significant difference in the average tick burden between species. Adult spp. had an overall mean of 4.03 ticks per capture, while adult had a mean of 0.47 ticks per capture. There was a significant association between infection and host species with more spp. positive samples than (65.8% and 10.2%, respectively). This work confirms significant differences in tick-host use and pathogen presence between sympatric rodent species. It is critical to understand tick-host interactions and tick distributions to develop effective and efficient tick control methods.