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Ticks and the city - are there any differences between city parks and natural forests in terms of tick abundance and prevalence of spirochaetes?

Overview of attention for article published in Parasites & Vectors, November 2017
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  • In the top 25% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (93rd percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (96th percentile)

Mentioned by

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1 news outlet
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39 X users
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3 Facebook pages

Citations

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61 Dimensions

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108 Mendeley
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Title
Ticks and the city - are there any differences between city parks and natural forests in terms of tick abundance and prevalence of spirochaetes?
Published in
Parasites & Vectors, November 2017
DOI 10.1186/s13071-017-2391-2
Pubmed ID
Authors

Maciej Kowalec, Tomasz Szewczyk, Renata Welc-Falęciak, Edward Siński, Grzegorz Karbowiak, Anna Bajer

Abstract

Ixodes ricinus ticks are commonly encountered in either natural or urban areas, contributing to Lyme disease agents Borreliella [(Borrelia burgdorferi (sensu lato)] spp. and Borrelia miyamotoi enzootic cycles in cities. It is an actual problem whether urbanization affects pathogen circulation and therefore risk of infection. The aim of the study was to evaluate main tick-borne disease risk factors in natural, endemic areas of north-east (NE) Poland (Białowieża) and urban areas of central Poland (Warsaw), measuring tick abundance/density, prevalence of infection with spirochaetes and diversity of these pathogens in spring-early summer and late summer-autumn periods between 2012 and 2015. Questing I. ricinus ticks were collected from three urban sites in Warsaw, central Poland and three natural sites in Białowieża, NE Poland. A total of 2993 ticks were analyzed for the presence of Borreliella spp. and/or Borrelia miyamotoi DNA by PCR. Tick abundance was analyzed by General Linear Models (GLM). Prevalence and distribution of spirochaetes was analyzed by Maximum Likelihood techniques based on log-linear analysis of contingency tables (HILOGLINEAR). Species typing and molecular phylogenetic analysis based on the sequenced flaB marker were carried out. Overall 4617 I. ricinus ticks were collected (2258 nymphs and 2359 adults). We report well established population of ticks in urban areas (10.1 ± 0.9 ticks/100 m(2)), as in endemic natural areas with higher mean tick abundance (16.5 ± 1.5 ticks/100 m(2)). Tick densities were the highest in spring-early summer in both types of areas. We observed no effect of the type of area on Borreliella spp. and B. miyamotoi presence in ticks, resulting in similar prevalence of spirochaetes in urban and natural areas [10.9% (95% CI: 9.7-12.2%) vs 12.4% (95% CI: 10.1-15.1%), respectively]. Prevalence of spirochaetes was significantly higher in the summer-autumn period than in the spring-early summer [15.0% (95% CI: 12.8-17.5%) vs 10.4% (95% CI: 9.2-11.6%), respectively]. We have detected six species of bacteria present in both types of areas, with different frequencies: dominance of B. afzelii (69.3%) in urban and B. garinii (48.1%) in natural areas. Although we observed higher tick densities in forests than in maintained parks, the prevalence of spirochaetes was significantly higher in the latter [9.8% (95% CI: 8.6-11.0%) vs 17.5% (95% CI: 14.4-20.5%)]. Surprisingly, a similar risk of infection with Borreliella spp. and/or B. miyamotoi was discovered in highly- and low-transformed areas. We suggest that the awareness of presence of these disease agents in cities should be raised.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 39 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 108 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Unknown 108 100%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Researcher 18 17%
Student > Ph. D. Student 14 13%
Student > Master 13 12%
Other 7 6%
Professor 6 6%
Other 19 18%
Unknown 31 29%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 15 14%
Environmental Science 10 9%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 10 9%
Medicine and Dentistry 9 8%
Veterinary Science and Veterinary Medicine 9 8%
Other 17 16%
Unknown 38 35%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 30. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 13 December 2022.
All research outputs
#1,283,630
of 25,182,110 outputs
Outputs from Parasites & Vectors
#176
of 5,913 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#28,657
of 450,395 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Parasites & Vectors
#6
of 165 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,182,110 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 94th percentile: it's in the top 10% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 5,913 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a little more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 6.1. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 97% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 450,395 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 93% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 165 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 96% of its contemporaries.