title: Impact of biodiversity on tick-borne diseases.
abstract: It is a well-known fact that high biodiversity is related to the health and proper functioning of environment. Recently, the attempts to search the relations between biodiversity and human health are also undertaken. A number of studies demonstrate that people living in undegraded environment are less exposed to the diseases of affluence. However, they are at a higher risk of contracting zoonoses. It is believed that the higher the number of animals, the higher is the number of ticks. Consequently, there is a serious risk of borreliosis and other tick-borne diseases. Such assumption, however, may be erroneous. A number of studies suggest a decreasing prevalence of tick-borne disease pathogens in high-biodiversity areas. In this paper, a promising hypothesis explaining this relation is discussed.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Zoology, Poznań University of Life Sciences.
authors.forename: Krzysztof
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Dudek
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D044822:Biodiversity; D002980:Climate; D021821:Communicable Diseases, Emerging / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000517:prevention & control; D017753:Ecosystem; D006801:Humans; D010572:Pest Control, Biological / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011159:Population Surveillance; D017282:Tick-Borne Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000517:prevention & control; D013987:Ticks; D015047:Zoonoses / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000382:microbiology