{"doi":"10.1128/jcm.36.5.1240-1244.1998","title":"Temporal Correlations between Tick Abundance and Prevalence of Ticks Infected with<i>Borrelia burgdorferi</i>and Increasing Incidence of Lyme Disease","abstract":"<jats:title>ABSTRACT</jats:title><jats:p>The abundance of host-seeking<jats:italic>Ixodes scapularis</jats:italic>nymphs, the principal vector for the Lyme disease agent,<jats:italic>Borrelia burgdorferi</jats:italic>, in Old Lyme, Lyme, and East Haddam, Connecticut, was compared with the incidence of reported human Lyme disease in the 12-town area around the Connecticut River and the State of Connecticut for the period 1989 to 1996. Ticks were sampled from lawns and woodlands by dragging flannel over the vegetation and examined for the presence of<jats:italic>B. burgdorferi</jats:italic>by indirect fluorescent antibody staining. The infection rate of the nymphal ticks by<jats:italic>B. burgdorferi</jats:italic>during the 9-year period was 14.3% (of 3,866), ranging from 8.6% (1993) to 24.4% (1996). The incidence of Lyme disease was positively correlated with tick abundance in the 12 town area (<jats:italic>r</jats:italic>= 0.828) and the State of Connecticut (<jats:italic>r</jats:italic>= 0.741). An entomological risk index based upon the number of<jats:italic>I. scapularis</jats:italic>ticks infected by<jats:italic>B. burgdorferi</jats:italic>was highest in 1992, 1994, and 1996 and was highly correlated with the incidence of Lyme disease in Connecticut (<jats:italic>r</jats:italic>= 0.944). The number of Lyme disease cases has been influenced, in part, by annual changes in population densities of<jats:italic>I. scapularis</jats:italic>and, presumably, a corresponding change in the risk of contact with infected ticks. Based upon tick activity and spirochetal infection rates, epidemiologically based Lyme disease case reports on a regional scale appear to reflect real trends in disease.</jats:p>","journal":"Journal of Clinical Microbiology","year":1998,"id":13784,"datarank":13.231383596177507,"base_score":5.327876168789581,"endowment":5.327876168789581,"self_citation_contribution":0.7991814253184373,"citation_network_contribution":12.43220217085907,"self_endowment_contribution":0.7991814253184373,"citer_contribution":12.43220217085907,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":205,"citer_count":189,"citers_with_citation_signal":178,"citers_with_endowment":178,"datacite_reuse_total":4,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":null,"is_oa":false,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":111636,"name":"Matthew L. Cartter","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":111637,"name":"Louis A. Magnarelli","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":111638,"name":"Starr-Hope Ertel","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":111639,"name":"Patricia A. Mshar","orcid":null,"position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":111635,"name":"Kirby C. Stafford","orcid":null,"position":0,"is_corresponding":false}],"reference_count":0,"raw_metadata":{"has_enrichment":true,"base_score":5.327876168789581,"endowment":5.327876168789581,"datacite_reuse_total":4,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"views":0,"has_version_chain":false,"is_dataset":false,"is_oa":false,"pmid":"9574684","pmcid":"PMC104807","openalex_id":"https://openalex.org/W2133804706","authors":[],"funders":[{"funder_name":"PHS HHS","grant_id":"U50-CCU106598","title":null}],"total_grants":1,"fwci":4.1385,"citation_percentile":0.94188549,"influential_citations":5,"citation_trend":[{"year":2012,"count":3},{"year":2013,"count":8},{"year":2014,"count":5},{"year":2015,"count":11},{"year":2016,"count":13},{"year":2017,"count":6},{"year":2018,"count":11},{"year":2019,"count":11},{"year":2020,"count":11},{"year":2021,"count":7},{"year":2022,"count":8},{"year":2023,"count":12},{"year":2024,"count":4},{"year":2025,"count":6},{"year":2026,"count":2}],"oa_status":"bronze","license":"https://journals.asm.org/non-commercial-tdm-license","oa_locations":[{"url":"https://jcm.asm.org/content/jcm/36/5/1240.full.pdf","host_type":"journal"},{"url":"https://jcm.asm.org/content/jcm/36/5/1240.full.pdf","host_type":"BRONZE"},{"url":"https://jcm.asm.org/content/jcm/36/5/1240.full.pdf","host_type":"publisher"},{"url":"https://journals.asm.org/doi/pdf/10.1128/JCM.36.5.1240-1244.1998","host_type":"publisher"},{"url":"https://doi.org/10.1128/jcm.36.5.1240-1244.1998","host_type":"journal"},{"url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9574684","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/104807","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC104807/pdf/jm001240.pdf","host_type":"repository"}],"fields_of_study":["Vector-borne infectious diseases","Viral Infections and Vectors","Vector-Borne Animal Diseases","Medicine","Biology","Environmental Science","Animals","Borrelia burgdorferi Group","Connecticut","Humans","Insect Vectors","Ixodes","Lyme Disease","Prevalence","Statistics as Topic","Time Factors"],"mesh_terms":["Animals","Connecticut","Humans","Insect Vectors","Lyme Disease","Statistics as Topic","Time Factors","Borrelia burgdorferi Group","Prevalence","Ixodes"],"keywords":["Ixodes scapularis","Borrelia burgdorferi","Lyme disease","Tick","Biology","Spirochaetaceae","Borrelia","LYME","Tick-borne disease","Veterinary medicine","Ixodidae","Virology","Immunology","Medicine","Antibody"],"sdg_mappings":[{"sdg_number":0,"sdg_label":"Good health and well-being"}],"linked_datasets":[{"doi":"10.6084/m9.figshare.14254094.v1","title":"Additional file 1 of Masting by beech trees predicts the risk of Lyme disease","publisher":"figshare","resource_type":"JournalArticle"},{"doi":"10.6084/m9.figshare.14254094","title":"Additional file 1 of Masting by beech trees predicts the risk of Lyme disease","publisher":"figshare","resource_type":"JournalArticle"},{"doi":"10.6084/m9.figshare.20472310.v1","title":"Additional file 1 of Risk of tick-borne pathogen spillover into urban yards in New York City","publisher":"figshare","resource_type":"JournalArticle"},{"doi":"10.6084/m9.figshare.20472310","title":"Additional file 1 of Risk of tick-borne pathogen spillover into urban yards in New York City","publisher":"figshare","resource_type":"JournalArticle"}],"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"database_accessions":[],"source":"live","citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-05-31T16:44:19.217105Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}