Integrated human behavior and tick risk maps to prioritize Lyme disease interventions using a 'One Health' approach

Wednesday, November 16, 2022

10:00 AM – 10:12 AM PT

Location: Vancouver Convention Centre, Meeting Room 220

Presenting Author(s)

CB

Catherine Bouchard

Veterinary Epidemiologist
Public Health Agency of Canada
Saint-Hyacinthe, Québec, Canada

Co-Author(s)

AD

Ariane Dumas

Université de Montréal
Saint-Hyacinthe, Québec, Canada
GB

Geneviève Baron

DSP Estrie - CIUSSS Estrie
Sherbrooke, Québec, Canada
NB

Natasha Bowser

Université de Montréal
Saint-Hyacinthe, Québec, Canada
PL

Patrick A. Leigton

Université de Montréal
Saint-Hyacinthe, Québec, Canada
NO

Nicholas Ogden

Public Health Agency of Canada
Saint-Hyacinthe, Québec, Canada
FM

François Milord

DSP Montérégie
Longueuil, Québec, Canada
RL

Robbin Lindsay

Public Health Agency of Canada
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
CA

Cécile Aenishaenslin

Université de Montréal
Saint-Hyacinthe, Québec, Canada

Lyme disease (LD) risk is emerging rapidly in Canada due to range expansion of its tick vectors, accelerated by climate change. The risk of contracting LD varies geographically due to variability in ecological characteristics that determine the hazard (the densities of infected ticks) and vulnerability of the human population determined by their adoption of preventive behaviors.

The objective of this work was to improve LD risk mapping using an integrated social-behavioral and ecological approach to: i) compute enhanced integrated risk maps for prioritization of interventions and ii) develop a spatially-explicit assessment tool to examine the relative contribution of different risk factors.

The study was carried out in the Estrie region located in southern Québec. LD behaviors were measured in a cross-sectional health survey conducted in 2018 reaching 10,790 respondents. These data were used to create an index for the social-behavioral component of risk. For the ecological risk analysis, a tick abundance model was developed by integrating data from tick surveillance from 2007 up to 2018. Social-behavioral and ecological components of the risk measures were combined to create vulnerability maps and, with the addition of human population densities, prioritization index maps. Map predictions were validated by testing the association of high-risk areas with the current spatial distribution of human cases of LD and reported tick exposure.

This research is a second step towards a more comprehensive integrated LD risk assessment approach, examining social-behavioral risk factors that interact with ecological risk factors to influence the management of emerging tick-borne diseases.