Intituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale della Sicilia, Palermo, Sicily, Italy.
Transbound Emerg Dis. 2010 Apr;57(1-2):46-8. doi: 10.1111/j.1865-1682.2010.01101.x.
The prevalence of Anaplasma, Ehrlichia, Rickettsia and Babesia/Theileria species was analysed in questing and feeding adult ticks in Sicily. A total of 678 ticks were collected and analysed in this study. Of these, 29 were questing ticks and 649 were collected from infested cattle, sheep, goats or dogs. Tick species analysed included Rhipicephalus bursa, R. turanicus, R. sanguineus, Hyalomma lusitanicum, H. marginatum, Dermacentor marginatus, Ixodes ricinus, R. (Boophilus) annulatus and Haemaphysalis punctata. With the exception of R. annulatus and H. punctata for which only eight and 15 ticks were analysed, respectively, all tick species were found to be infected. Most ticks were found to be infected with a single pathogen genus. Data obtained from questing ticks was analysed to test for differences between tick species in the prevalence of infection for different pathogens. These preliminary results suggested that the most important vectors of pathogens that may affect human and/or animal health in Sicily are R. turanicus for Anaplasma spp. and D. marginatus for Rickettsia spp. For Ehrlichia spp. and Babesia/Theileria spp., R. turanicus/D. marginatus and H. lusitanicum may be the most important vectors but additional studies are needed to confirm these results.
本研究分析了西西里岛游离和吸血状态的成虫蜱中无形体、埃立克体、立克次体和巴贝西虫/泰勒虫的流行情况。本研究共采集并分析了 678 只蜱。其中 29 只为游离蜱，649 只为寄生在牛、羊、山羊或狗身上的蜱。分析的蜱种包括钝缘蜱、土耳其钝缘蜱、血红扇头蜱、璃眼蜱、边缘革蜱、扇头蜱、全沟硬蜱和血红厉蜱。除了全沟硬蜱和血红厉蜱，分别只分析了 8 只和 15 只蜱外，所有蜱种都被发现受到感染。大多数蜱只感染了单一病原体属。对游离蜱的数据进行分析，以检验不同蜱种对不同病原体感染的流行率是否存在差异。这些初步结果表明，在西西里岛，可能影响人类和/或动物健康的病原体的最重要传播媒介是无形体的土耳其钝缘蜱和立克次体的边缘革蜱。对于埃立克体和巴贝西虫/泰勒虫，土耳其钝缘蜱/边缘革蜱和璃眼蜱可能是最重要的传播媒介，但需要进一步的研究来证实这些结果。
