Patchy woods-common in cities and suburbia, and even in rural areas-may have more Lyme disease-carrying ticks, which could increase risk of the disease in these forest remnants, scientists have found. While forest fragments generally have fewer species than continuous habitat does, some species actually fare better in small patches, according to biologist Felicia Keesing of Bard College in Annandale, NY, and her colleagues. Lyme disease incidence is rising in the United States, and is in fact far more common than West Nile fever and other insect-borne diseases. Forest fragmentation could explain the increase.
"This research is important because it gives us a new way of looking at the transmission of diseases, and shows us that human health is affected by the local ecology, and by landuse practices," said Michael Bowers, program director in the National Science Foundation (NSF)s division of environmental biology, which funded the research.
"Our results suggest that efforts to reduce the risk of Lyme disease should be directed toward decreasing fragmentation of deciduous forests of the northeastern United States into small patches, particularly in areas with a high incidence of Lyme disease," said Keesing. "The creation of forest fragments smaller than five acres should especially be avoided."
The scientists results were published in the February 2003 issue of the journal Conservation Biology.