Emily L Pascoe, Charles E Vaughn, Michael I Jones, Reginald H Barrett, Janet E Foley, Robert S Lane
Despite increasing severity and frequency of wildfires, knowledge about how fire impacts the ecology of tick-borne pathogens is limited. In 2018, the River Fire burned a forest in the far-western U.S.A. where the ecology of tick-borne pathogens had been studied for decades. Forest structure, avifauna, large and small mammals, lizards, ticks, and tick-borne pathogens ( Anaplasma phagocytophilum , Borrelia burgdorferi , Borrelia miyamotoi ) were assessed after the wildfire in 2019 and 2020. Burning reduced canopy cover and eliminated the layer of thick leaf litter that hosted free-living ticks, which over time was replaced by forbs and grasses...
June 2023: Journal of Vector Ecology