Collaborative Research: Testing Alternative Hypotheses for Gradients in Lyme Disease in the Eastern U.S.: Climate, Host Community and Vector Genetic Structure

合作研究：测试美国东部莱姆病梯度的替代假设：气候、宿主群落和载体遗传结构

• 批准号: 0914376
• 负责人: Roger LeBrun
• 金额: $ 30.16万
• 依托单位: University of Rhode Island
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2010-01-01 至 2015-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0914376&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Testing; Alternative; Hypotheses

Lyme disease (LD) is the most common vector-borne disease in the U.S., with most cases acquired from blacklegged ticks. These ticks are found throughout the eastern U.S., yet 93% of LD cases occur in ten states found in the Northeast and Upper Midwest. Various explanations have been proposed for the puzzling absence of LD in some areas where blacklegged ticks occur, but no agreement has been reached. The absence of an explanation contributes to uncertainty and confusion felt by citizens and healthcare providers faced with expanding tick populations in many parts of the U.S. The research team represents five universities as well as national and international governmental agencies. They have a strong commitment to disseminating research findings to scientists, public health agencies, land managers, and the public. They will test three key hypotheses concerning LD distribution using field, laboratory, and computer modeling studies. Data on tick-host relationships, tick seasonal biology, and tick genetics will be collected from field sites in four widely-separated regions of the eastern U.S. Application of modeling and molecular tools will reveal the ecological and evolutionary processes responsible for the variation in LD risk in different regions of the U.S., as well as help predict how climate change could alter this risk. Furthermore, this improved understanding of factors determining the distribution and abundance of infected ticks will assist in human disease diagnosis and treatment, tick control measures, and public education on regional differences in the risk of LD and other tick-borne disease.

莱姆病（LD）是美国最常见的媒介传播疾病，大多数病例是从黑腿壁虱中获得的。这些壁虱在整个美国东部都发现了，但有93％的LD病例发生在东北和中西部上部发现的十个州。 已经提出了各种解释，即在发生黑腿滴答的某些地区令人困惑的LD缺席，但尚未达成协议。缺乏解释会导致公民和医疗保健提供者感到不确定性和困惑，而在美国许多地区，研究团队都代表了五所大学以及国家和国际政府机构。他们有坚定的承诺将研究结果传播给科学家，公共卫生机构，土地经理和公众。 他们将使用现场，实验室和计算机建模研究来检验有关LD分布的三个关键假设。 关于tick宿主关系，tick式关系，tick季节性生物学和tick遗传学的数据将从美国东部的四个广泛分离区域的现场现场收集，这将揭示导致美国不同地区LD风险变化的生态和进化过程，并有助于预测这种风险的变化。 此外，对确定受感染壁虱分布和丰富性的因素的这种改进的理解将有助于人类疾病的诊断和治疗，tick控制措施以及公共教育LD和其他tick疾病的风险。