Comparison of acarological risk metrics derived from active and passive surveillance and their concordance with tick-borne disease incidence

• DOI: 10.1016/j.ttbdis.2023.102243
• Publication Date: 2023-08-21T23:13:49Z
• Authors: Karen M Holcomb; Noelle Khalil; Duncan W Cozens; Jamie L Cantoni; Doug E Brackney; Megan A Linske; Scott C Williams; Goudarz Molaei; Rebecca J Eisen
• Keywords: Anaplasma phagocytophilum; Anaplasmosis; Tick-borne disease; Ixodes scapularis; Concordance

Tick-borne diseases continue to threaten human health across the United States. Both active and passive tick surveillance can complement case surveillance, providing spatio-temporal information on when where humans are at risk for encounters with ticks tick-borne pathogens. However, little work has been done assess concordance of acarological metrics from each method. We used data Ixodes scapularis its associated pathogens Connecticut (2019–2021) collected through collections (drag sampling) or submissions public compare county estimates pathogen presence, infection prevalence, abundance by life stage. Between strategies, we found complete agreement in high prevalence Anaplasma phagocytophilum, Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto, Babesia microti, but no consistent relationships between actively passively derived infected also compared nymphal (i.e., nymphs, abundance, nymphs) reported incidence Lyme disease, anaplasmosis, babesiosis, did not find any these metrics. The small spatial temporal scale which had consistently limited our ability significant relationships. Findings likely differ if examined a broader coverage greater variation epidemiological outcomes. Our results indicate similar outcomes some (tick prevalence), comparisons were variable estimates.