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Ecological Niche Modeling Of Lyme Disease Risk In Maine Based On Human Case Data, Elizabeth Dee

Honors College

Ixodes scapularis, the blacklegged tick,is the primary vector for the Lyme disease-causing bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi in the United States.Lyme disease poses a significant concern to the state of Maine, as both the number and geographic distribution of cases across the state have been steadily increasing over the past two decades. In 2001, there were 108 confirmed or probable cases of Lyme disease in Maine compared to 1404 cases in 2018. Using tick-borne disease human case data from the Maine CDC andArcGIS software, I created three Lyme disease maps for the years 2001, 2009, and 2017. These maps show the number …