Andrea Swei

TL;DR: It is seen that, by their nature, these thresholds are rarely abrupt and always difficult to measure, and important facets of wildlife ecology are neglected by current theories.

TL;DR: Key areas of uncertainty include the precise influence of deer abundance on tick abundance, how tick populations are regulated, assembly of host communities and tick-feeding patterns across different habitats, reservoir competence of host species, and pathogenicity for humans of different genotypes of Borrelia burgdorferi.

TL;DR: A review of the literature on spatial patterns and environmental correlates of human cases of LD and the vector ticks, Ixodes scapularis in the northeastern and midwestern United States and Ixode pacificus in the western United States found that the only environmental variable consistently associated with increased LD risk and incidence was the presence of forests.

TL;DR: The microbiome of Ixodes pacificus ticks, the vector for Lyme disease in the western United States, is described and a strong impact of host blood meal identity on tick microbiome species richness and composition is shown.

TL;DR: A widespread, opportunistic survey of over 3,000 amphibians for Bd throughout Asia and adjoining Papua New Guinea suggests that Bd is either newly emerging in Asia, endemic at low prevalence, or that some other ecological factor is preventing Bd from fully invading Asian amphibians.