Recreation reduces tick density through fine-scale risk effects on deer space-use

Area of Science:

• Ecology
• Disease Ecology
• Wildlife Management

Background:

• Altered host-pathogen-vector interactions impact human disease risk.
• Increasing deer populations correlate with rising tick-borne pathogen prevalence globally.
• Human activities can modify wildlife behavior, offering potential disease management strategies.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how human recreational activities affect deer space-use patterns.
• To determine the influence of deer space-use on the distribution of the sheep tick (Ixodes ricinus).
• To assess the potential of human recreational management for mitigating zoonotic disease risk.

Main Methods:

• Compared deer dropping and questing tick density near (20m) and far from (100m) frequently and infrequently used forest trails.
• Analyzed deer avoidance of frequently used trails versus infrequently used trails.
• Correlated deer presence with tick abundance in relation to trail usage.

Main Results:

• Deer dropping density was 31% lower near frequently used trails compared to infrequently used trails.
• Questing tick abundance was 62% lower near frequently used trails versus infrequently used trails.
• Deer avoidance of frequently used trails correlated with reduced tick density, suggesting a link between human activity and disease vector distribution.

Conclusions:

• Deer avoidance of human-recreation trails leads to a significant reduction in questing tick density.
• Recreational trail management can be a tool to reduce the risk of tick-borne zoonotic diseases.
• Human activities have an unexplored impact on ecosystems that can be leveraged for disease risk mitigation.