Recipient Organization
UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND
19 WOODWARD HALL 9 EAST ALUMNI AVENUE
KINGSTON,RI 02881
Performing Department
Plant Science
Non Technical Summary
Human and animal diseases transmitted by black-legged ticks are increasing in Rhode Island and the larger northeastern United States region-the health burden from Lyme disease is estimated to cost Rhode Island more than $30 million annual, and in just the past five years, cases of the sometimes fatal human babesiosis and human anaplasmosis have increased in Rhode Island by >1,500% and >2,500%, respectively. The current new project builds on previous work and will focus on improving health promotion tools for tick-bite protection and on increasing the number of people in Rhode Island that take risk-appropriate actions to prevent tick-bites and disease. The project integrates biological and geo-physical research with social science and public health marketing, to create credible health promotion tools and remove stakeholder barriers to implementing tick-bite protection and disease prevention. Specifically, we will create and validate various decision support products (tick risk index, risk calculator, tailored interventions, supporting content, etc) so that they are operational for the entire northeastern US. As a first step, the current project focuses on one research project and two extension projects in Rhode Island. In field experiments, we will test the hypothesis that extended durations of sub-optimum levels of atmospheric moisture directly affects black-legged tick activity and survival. Collected data will be used to develop models that predict nymphal black-legged tick activity. Expected outcomes from this project are improved decision support and an increase in the number of people taking risk-appropriate actions to prevent tick-bites and disease.
Animal Health Component
70%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
30%
Applied
70%
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
There are three specific objectives of this new project. 1) To assess a multi-sensor approach for predicting tick encounter risk; we will attempt to correlate tick activity levels with direct measurements of relative humidity duration and remotely-sensed variables associated with tick habitat and moisture. Sub-projects under this objective will measure relative humidity in tick habitat as well as obtain humidity data from the Northeast Climate Data Center at Cornell University in an effort to develop an animated model of relative humidity dynamics in tick habitat; additionally, extensive tick encounter surveillance in randomly selected plots will be conducted to correlate with climate variables. Final outputs of the work will be graphs correlating duration of sub-optimal RH and host-seeking nymphal tick abundance. 2) To complete and validate a novel, user-friendly, TickEncounter Risk Calculator and customized health promotion plan to prevent tick-bites in backyard environments in Rhode Island. All modeling for the risk calculator portion is completed but thousands of lines of code remains to be written for the customized health promotion plan. Additionally, we will attempt to functionalize the calculator for Connecticut using town-based Lyme disease incidence data as a surrogate for tick encounter risk. Outputs will be in the form of easily interpreted products providing multi-channel tick-bite prevention decision support during the spring and summer tick risk season. 3) To develop a social marketing protocol for implementing a health promotion campaign to encourage people to regularly use clothing only tick repellents. Outputs will be extensive target audience analyses, detailed campaign goals, marketing mix, and recommendations for a pilot program. The expected outcomes from this project are improved tick-bite protection decision support and an increase in the number of people taking risk-appropriate actions to prevent tick-bites and disease.
Project Methods
Field experiments will be conducted to confirm previous lab-derived atmospheric moisture thresholds associated with blacklegged tick mortality. Additional GIS and remote sensing studies will provide critical data for fine-tuning the site-specificity of the relative humidity predictive model, and for extending the predictive capacity of our TickEncounter Risk Index to the larger Northeast Region. To validate the relationship between tick activity/survival and duration of exposure to sub-optimal RH, we will conduct weekly tick sampling at field sites where humidity data is being collected. An important component of this work will be to establish the relationship between relative humidity in tick habitat and a remotely sensed index. We will employ a hierarchical sampling design to scale-up from in situ field measurements of RH to remote sensing observations. We will take advantage of spatial, spectral, and temporal resolutions from multi-sensor remote sensing data. We will use these regression models to assess which humidity variable (daily average, weekly average, number of consecutive 4 or 6 hr periods below the 82% threshold, etc.) best predicts tick activity levels. Akaike Information Criterion and similar approaches will be used for final model evaluation and selection. A second model based on 15 years of tick encounter risk surveillance in Rhode Island will be used to develop a novel decision support tool, "TickEncounter Risk Calculator-My Backyard". The product will combine static risk maps with images of low and high-risk scenes and activities leading to a customized tick encounter risk value. Once these risk indices become operational, we will begin monitoring incoming web traffic to the TickEncounter Risk Index and TickEncounter Risk Calculator pages on www.tickencounter.org, and evaluate traffic patterns within the site, especially links to www.tickencounter.org/prevention/protectyourself. We also will conduct a follow-up pen and paper mail survey, soliciting 10,000 residents statewide (last conducted in 2004/05, n=1,835), to assess Rhode Islanders tick bite prevention practices.