Aggregated distribution of infective spots composed of Leptotrombidium pallidum, highly prevalent with Rickettsia tsutsugamushi, demonstrated by sentinel voles, Microtus montebelli, on the ground.

In the epidemiological surveys on scrub typhus at Chichibu City near Tokyo, an area, 350 m by 35 m, in the Hitsujiyama Park was found to be heavily infested with Rickettsia tsutsugamushi (Rt). Distribution of trombiculid mites and their infection rates in this area were studied using sentinel animals, 48 Microtus montebelli and 10 ddY mice. The surveys were conducted 6 times in the autumn in 1985 and 1986. At the first 2 surveys, 16 animals were placed at random, and 4 restricted areas were identified as highly populated with trombiculid mites. For the detailed survey, each of 4 areas was divided into 2 m x 2 m quadrats to settle a sentinel animal to each. A total of mites collected by all sentinel animals was 331 Leptotrombidium pallidum, 175 L. fuji and 16 Gahrliepia saduski. Almost all mites were collected by M. montebelli, except only 1 L. fuji in 10 mice. From a M. montebelli in a quadrat, 157 L. pallidum were recovered, whereas the number/vole was 0 to 24 in the others. L. fuji was also highly aggregated at 2 sites. Rt was detected from individual mites by avidin-biotin immunofluorescence or isolated by the mouse passage from individual or pooled mites. Only Karp strain of Rt was detected or isolated from L. pallidum at a ratio of 31/286 (10.8%). No Rt was found from L. fuji or G. saduski. The infection rate in L. pallidum was especially high in 3 voles at ratios of 6/11, 2/5 and 3/5, respectively. Out of 14 sentinel M. montebelli with infected L. pallidum, 12 (85.7%) were infected with Rt. It was concluded that L. pallidum was distributed in aggregated clusters to form the mite islands and was infected heavily at the specific sites to make the infective spots.