7 research outputs found
Cascading effects of predator activity on tick-borne disease risk: Dataset
All data used in the analyses of the manuscript entitled: Cascading effects of predator activity on tick-borne disease ris
Cascading effects of predator activity on tick-borne disease risk.
Predators and competitors of vertebrates can in theory reduce the density of infected nymphs (DIN)-an often-used measure of tick-borne disease risk-by lowering the density of reservoir-competent hosts and/or the tick burden on reservoir-competent hosts. We investigated this possible indirect effect of predators by comparing data from 20 forest plots across the Netherlands that varied in predator abundance. In each plot, we measured the density of questing Ixodes ricinus nymphs (DON), DIN for three pathogens, rodent density, the tick burden on rodents and the activity of mammalian predators. We analysed whether rodent density and tick burden on rodents were correlated with predator activity, and how rodent density and tick burden predicted DON and DIN for the three pathogens. We found that larval burden on two rodent species decreased with activity of two predator species, while DON and DIN for all three pathogens increased with larval burden on rodents, as predicted. Path analyses supported an indirect negative correlation of activity of both predator species with DON and DIN. Our results suggest that predators can indeed lower the number of ticks feeding on reservoir-competent hosts, which implies that changes in predator abundance may have cascading effects on tick-borne disease risk
Cascading effects of predator activity on tick-borne disease risk.
Predators and competitors of vertebrates can in theory reduce the density of infected nymphs (DIN)-an often-used measure of tick-borne disease risk-by lowering the density of reservoir-competent hosts and/or the tick burden on reservoir-competent hosts. We investigated this possible indirect effect of predators by comparing data from 20 forest plots across the Netherlands that varied in predator abundance. In each plot, we measured the density of questing Ixodes ricinus nymphs (DON), DIN for three pathogens, rodent density, the tick burden on rodents and the activity of mammalian predators. We analysed whether rodent density and tick burden on rodents were correlated with predator activity, and how rodent density and tick burden predicted DON and DIN for the three pathogens. We found that larval burden on two rodent species decreased with activity of two predator species, while DON and DIN for all three pathogens increased with larval burden on rodents, as predicted. Path analyses supported an indirect negative correlation of activity of both predator species with DON and DIN. Our results suggest that predators can indeed lower the number of ticks feeding on reservoir-competent hosts, which implies that changes in predator abundance may have cascading effects on tick-borne disease risk
Table S1 from Cascading effects of predator activity on tick-borne disease risk
Characteristics of the research sites, and sampling effort (camera trap days)
Table S2 from Cascading effects of predator activity on tick-borne disease risk
Estimated Effective Detection Distances (EDD), for the medium-sized to large mammal species photographed with camera traps, per habitat type
Supplementary material S5 from Cascading effects of predator activity on tick-borne disease risk
Full model results of exploratory analyses testing the correlations between rodent characteristics (density, larval and nymphal burden), the density of questing nymphs (DON), and the density of infected nymphs (DIN) for <i>Borrelia afzelii, Borrelia miyamotoi</i> and <i>Candidatus</i> Neoehrlichia mikurensis