What increases Lyme disease risk, what decreases it, why are there hotspots and bad years, and why is it spreading? Answering these questions requires an intimate knowledge of the players involved, which include the Lyme bacterium, the tick vector, the many animals ticks feed on, their habitats, the climate, and the landscape. This book explores why deer are less important to Lyme disease than most people think, why acorns are in fact important, and why biodiversity reduces risk of exposure, and explains how the science of ecology can help protect human health.

Rick Ostfeld is Senior Scientist and Animal Ecologist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, Millbrook, New York.

• Contents


• Preface


• 1.: Chapter 1 - Introduction


• 2.: Chapter 2 - Discovery


• 3.: Chapter 3 - It's the deer


• 4.: Chapter 4 - It's the mice


• 5.: Chapter 5 - It's the Weather


• 6.: Chapter 6 - Questioning Dogma


• 7.: Chapter 7 - Embracing Complexity: Food Webs


• 8.: Chapter 8 - Embracing Complexity: Biodiversity


• 9.: Chapter 9 - Embracing Complexity: Ecosystem Functioning


• 10.: Chapter 10 - Embracing Complexity: Biocontrol of Ticks and Lyme Disease


• 11.: Chapter 11 - In Pursuit of Emerging Infectious Diseases


• Index