Biodiversity may lessen Lyme disease

The richer a region’s array of lizard and small-mammal species, the less likely people are to catch Lyme disease, say New York researchers.

That’s the pattern emerging from an 11-state area, say Richard S. Ostfeld of the Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook and Felicia Keesing of Siena College in Loudonville. The trend could provide a new reason to love biodiversity—it protects human health—they say in the June Conservation Biology.