If this is the case, then we can use our findings from the field to inform mathematical models to predict when and where the infections may emerge. burgdorferi to invade new host populations and maintain enzootic transmission. Babesiosis is an emerging disease in the United States and is potentially fatal to the elderly and immuno-compromised. If you have ever wondered why the band Bikini Kill broke up, it was because frontwoman Kathleen Hanna was suffering from severe Lyme symptoms. Lyme disease is a complex bacterial infection that can be treated, but can have serious symptoms if left untreated including arthritis and neurological disorders. Most important for our main study, however, are the ticks that will be processed back at the lab and tested for infection of Borrelia burgdorferi and Babesia microti, the disease-causing agents of Lyme disease and babesiosis, respectively. Insights from these studies can be used by disease ecologists or public health professionals to advance our understanding of tick-borne disease surveillance and prevention. By comparing tick infection to mouse infection, we can learn how efficiently the ticks are transmitting diseases across locations. By examining the parasite diversity of mice, we can gain a better understanding of how pathogens and parasites interact.īefore releasing the animals, we also collect blood and tissue samples for genetic information about the specimen and screen for infection. Then we collect their external parasites, including ticks, fleas, and mites, along with a fecal sample, to determine their internal parasite load. We tag the mice and other small mammals to track to their disease status throughout this field season, compare them to previous years, and follow them next season. Raccoons are the likely culprit-too big to fit in the trap but crafty enough to go trap-by-trap scavenging the oatmeal bait. Some days we find our traps emptied, moved, and sometimes taken apart. Occasionally chipmunks, voles, shrews, and flying squirrels find their way into the traps. We check the traps hoping to catch Peromyscus leucopus, the primary reservoir of Lyme disease and other tick-borne pathogens in the Northeast, otherwise known as the white-footed mouse. The smell of dew and oak reminds me of Girl Scout camp, and birds singing around us are reminiscent of a David Attenborough documentary. The forest is much different during the day. My day starts at dawn when we head out to the forest to collect the Sherman traps we set the night before. Particularly, checking mice to predict an emerging pathogen outbreak and how climate may be affecting populations of the disease vector, Ixodes scapularis, the blacklegged tick. Our group seeks to understand the interplay between tick-borne diseases in the Northeast and biological and environmental drivers. I am conducting fieldwork in eco-epidemiology-an emerging field that explores how biological and environmental factors influence human disease-in collaboration with professor Maria Diuk-Wasser from Columbia’s Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology Department. I'm wandering through the forest, checking and setting Sherman traps to catch white-footed mice, for my practicum this summer. I use a walking stick to keep from tripping on something buried in the litter and catch spider webs in front of me. Off the worn path, the only sounds we hear are the crunching leaves and twigs under our feet and small animals scurrying as we approach. The sun is just above the horizon and tree cover darkens the forest.
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