PREDICTING IXODES-SCAPULARIS ABUNDANCE ON WHITE-TAILED DEER USING GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION-SYSTEMS

We collected 1,410 Ixodes scapularis from 139 white-tailed deer in Ken t County, Maryland during the 1990 hunting season. A geographic inform ation system was used to extract 41 environmental variables in the are as surrounding the collection sites of the deer. Stepwise linear regre ssion was used to evaluate the association between the abundance of ti cks on deer and the environmental data. A significant statistical asso ciation was observed between the abundance of I. scapularis and seven environmental variables (R = 0.69). Tick abundance was negatively corr elated with urban land use patterns, wetlands, the amount of privately owned land, soils that tended to be saturated with water, and one dra inage system. Tick abundance was positively correlated with well-drain ed, sandy soils having low water tables. These results indicate that g eographically referenced environmental data may be useful in anticipat ing the risk of exposure to vectors over large areas.