OPUS: Lyme disease ecology in eastern North America: questioning dogma, embracing complexity

当一种新的传染病出现时，生物医学科学家就会动员起来，确定关键物种（病原体、野生动物宿主、媒介）或负责任的气候因素，并绘制出风险环境来源的草图。这些草图往好了说是不充分的，往坏了说是不准确的，可能导致不能充分减轻疾病风险。例如，通过瞄准白尾鹿和白足鼠来减少莱姆病（LD）发病率的尝试失败了，因为其他几种重要的蜱虫宿主可以弥补鹿和老鼠数量的减少。该研究的主要目的是确定有限成功的原因，使用LD作为案例研究。拟议的研究将提供关于LD的综合知识，以：(1)描述新兴疾病的主要初始方法；(2)说明这种方法在预测人类暴露风险或规定有效控制风险方面的缺点；(3)探索疾病风险的更广泛的生态背景。可以说，霍乱是世界上研究得最好的媒介传播的人畜共患疾病，并可作为许多其他疾病的模型。该综合报告将用于描述一种对新出现的传染病的生态学更全面的方法，这种方法有望对风险提供更彻底、更健全和更迅速的了解，从而更有效地减轻风险。

When a new infectious disease emerges, biomedical scientists mobilize to identify the key species (pathogen, wildlife reservoir, vector) or climatic factors responsible, and to produce a sketch of environmental sources of risk. These sketches are insufficient at best and inaccurate at worst, potentially leading to inadequate mitigation of disease risk. For example, attempts to reduce Lyme disease (LD) incidence by targeting white-tailed deer and white-footed mice have failed because several other important hosts for ticks can compensate for reductions in deer and mouse populations. The major objective of the proposed research is to identify the causes of limited success, using LD as a case study. The proposed research will provide a synthesis of knowledge about LD to: (1) describe the predominant initial approach to emerging diseases; (2) illustrate the shortcomings of such an approach in predicting risk of human exposure or prescribing effective control of that risk; and (3) explore the broader ecological context of disease risk. LD is arguably the best-studied vector-borne zoonotic disease in the world and serves as a model for many other diseases. The synthesis will be used to describe a more holistic approach to the ecology of emerging infectious diseases that is expected to provide a more thorough, sound, and rapid understanding of risk leading to more effective mitigation.