Molecular-based laboratory testing confer accuracy over microscopical testing for tick identification
Bibliographic record
Abstract
As per published literature, the Ixodes pacificus tick is the primary Lyme disease vector in British Columbia (BC), while the Ixodes scapularis tick species is the dominant vector on the East Coast of Canada, with no I . scapularis presence seen in BC. However, a recent publication reported presence of I. scapularis in BC which initiated this study to determine the accuracy of the microscopic identification of ticks received in the BC Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC) Public Health Laboratory and compare morphologic methods to molecular methods. Molecular testing uses a real-time PCR assay to amplify the internal transcribed spacer 2 region as a screening method for I. scapularis ; while Sanger sequencing tests the cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 gene for species confirmation. Of the 209 ticks tested, 74% were I. pacificus , 3.8% were I. scapularis , and 22% were other genus including Amblyomma . Phylogenetic analysis was achieved through Sanger sequencing , confirming the accuracy of the real-time PCR assay. Notably, 6 of 8 I. scapularis tick’s hosts had clear travel history outside BC, while the 2 remaining have no confirmed travel. Both the microscopic and molecular identification methods suggest that I. pacificus ticks are dominant in BC and ticks identified as I. scapularis have host travel history outside of BC. This study further underscores the importance of tick surveillance as global human travel and sometimes along with their pets facilitate tick migration.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.016 | 0.039 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.003 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.003 | 0.002 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.003 | 0.003 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".