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1 January 2010 Ecological Niche Modeling of Lyme Disease in British Columbia, Canada
Sunny Mak, Muhammad Morshed, Bonnie Henry
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Abstract

The purpose of this study was to describe the geographic distribution and model the ecological niche for Borrelia burgdorferi (Johnson, Schmidt, Hyde, Steigerwaldt & Brenner), Ixodes pacificus (Cooley & Kohls), and Ixodes angustus (Neumann), the bacterium and primary tick vectors for Lyme disease, in British Columbia (BC), Canada. We employed a landscape epidemiology approach using geographic information systems mapping and ecological niche modeling (Genetic Algorithm for Rule-set Prediction) to identify geographical areas of disease transmission risk. Forecasted optimal ecological niche areas for B. burgdorferi are focused along the coast of Vancouver Island, the southwestern coast of the BC mainland, and in valley systems of interior BC roughly along and below the N51° line of latitude. These findings have been used to increase public and physician awareness of Lyme disease risk, and prioritize future field sampling for ticks in BC.

Sunny Mak, Muhammad Morshed, and Bonnie Henry "Ecological Niche Modeling of Lyme Disease in British Columbia, Canada," Journal of Medical Entomology 47(1), 99-105, (1 January 2010). https://doi.org/10.1603/033.047.0114
Received: 13 May 2009; Accepted: 1 October 2009; Published: 1 January 2010
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KEYWORDS
Borrelia burgdorferi
Geographic Information Systems
Ixodes angustus
Ixodes pacificus
Lyme disease
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