O'Connor Collin, Prusinski Melissa A, Jiang Shiguo, Russell Alexis, White Jennifer, Falco Richard, Kokas John, Vinci Vanessa, Gall Wayne, Tober Keith, Haight Jamie, Oliver JoAnne, Meehan Lisa, Sporn Lee Ann, Brisson Dustin, Backenson P Bryon
New York State Department of Health, Bureau of Communicable Disease Control, Albany, NY, USA.
State University of New York, University at Albany, Department of Geography and Planning, Albany, NY, USA.
J Med Entomol. 2021 Nov 9;58(6):2453-2466. doi: 10.1093/jme/tjab107.
Human granulocytic anaplasmosis (HGA) and human babesiosis are tick-borne diseases spread by the blacklegged tick (Ixodes scapularis Say, Acari: Ixodidae) and are the result of infection with Anaplasma phagocytophilum and Babesia microti, respectively. In New York State (NYS), incidence rates of these diseases increased concordantly until around 2013, when rates of HGA began to increase more rapidly than human babesiosis, and the spatial extent of the diseases diverged. Surveillance data of tick-borne pathogens (2007 to 2018) and reported human cases of HGA (n = 4,297) and human babesiosis (n = 2,986) (2013-2018) from the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) showed a positive association between the presence/temporal emergence of each pathogen and rates of disease in surrounding areas. Incidence rates of HGA were higher than human babesiosis among White and non-Hispanic/non-Latino individuals, as well as all age and sex groups. Human babesiosis exhibited higher rates among non-White individuals. Climate, weather, and landscape data were used to build a spatially weighted zero-inflated negative binomial (ZINB) model to examine and compare associations between the environment and rates of HGA and human babesiosis. HGA and human babesiosis ZINB models indicated similar associations with forest cover, forest land cover change, and winter minimum temperature; and differing associations with elevation, urban land cover change, and winter precipitation. These results indicate that tick-borne disease ecology varies between pathogens spread by I. scapularis.
人粒细胞无形体病（HGA）和人巴贝斯虫病是由黑脚蜱（肩突硬蜱，蜱螨亚纲：硬蜱科）传播的蜱媒疾病，分别由嗜吞噬细胞无形体和微小巴贝斯虫感染所致。在纽约州（NYS），这些疾病的发病率在2013年左右之前一直同步上升，之后HGA的发病率开始比人巴贝斯虫病上升得更快，且这两种疾病的空间分布范围出现了差异。纽约州卫生部（NYSDOH）提供的蜱媒病原体监测数据（2007年至2018年）以及报告的HGA（n = 4297）和人巴贝斯虫病（n = 2986）的人类病例（2013 - 2018年）显示，每种病原体的存在/时间出现与周边地区的疾病发病率之间存在正相关。在白人、非西班牙裔/非拉丁裔个体以及所有年龄和性别组中，HGA的发病率高于人巴贝斯虫病。人巴贝斯虫病在非白人个体中的发病率更高。利用气候、天气和景观数据构建了空间加权零膨胀负二项式（ZINB）模型，以检验和比较环境与HGA和人巴贝斯虫病发病率之间的关联。HGA和人巴贝斯虫病的ZINB模型显示，它们与森林覆盖、林地覆盖变化和冬季最低温度之间的关联相似；而与海拔、城市土地覆盖变化和冬季降水量之间的关联不同。这些结果表明，由肩突硬蜱传播的病原体之间，蜱媒疾病生态学存在差异。
