Forest & Nature Lab, Department of Forest and Water Management, Ghent University, Geraardsbergsesteenweg 267, 9090, Melle-Gontrode, Belgium.
Avia-GIS NV, Risschotlei 33, 2980 Zoersel, Belgium.
Ticks Tick Borne Dis. 2018 Feb;9(2):141-145. doi: 10.1016/j.ttbdis.2017.08.008. Epub 2017 Aug 26.
The human pathogens Borrelia afzelii, which causes Lyme borreliosis and B. miyamotoi, which causes relapsing fever, both circulate between Ixodes ricinus ticks and rodents. The spatiotemporal dynamics in the prevalence of these pathogens have not yet been fully elucidated, but probably depend on the spatiotemporal population dynamics of small rodents. We aimed to evaluate the effect of different forest types on the density of infected nymphs in different years and to obtain more knowledge about the spatial and temporal patterns of ticks and tick-borne pathogens. We analysed unfed nymphal ticks from 22 stands of four different forest types in Belgium in 2009, 2010, 2013 and 2014 and found that the density of nymphs in general and the density of nymphs infected with B. afzelii and B. miyamotoi varied yearly, but without temporal variation in the infection prevalence. The yearly variation in density of infected nymphs in our study thus seems to be caused most by the variation in the density of nymphs, which makes it a good predictor of disease risk. The risk for rodent-associated tick-borne diseases also varied between forest types. We stress the need to elucidate the contribution of the host community composition to tick-borne disease risk.
携带伯氏疏螺旋体（引起莱姆病）和米氏巴贝西虫（引起回归热）的人类病原体在硬蜱和啮齿动物之间循环。这些病原体的流行的时空动态尚未完全阐明，但可能取决于小啮齿动物的时空种群动态。我们旨在评估不同森林类型对不同年份感染若虫密度的影响，并获得更多关于蜱和蜱传病原体的时空模式的知识。我们分析了 2009 年、2010 年、2013 年和 2014 年来自比利时四个不同森林类型的 22 个林分中未进食的若虫，并发现若虫的密度以及感染伯氏疏螺旋体和米氏巴贝西虫的若虫的密度普遍存在年际差异，但感染率没有时间变化。因此，本研究中感染若虫密度的年际变化似乎主要是由若虫密度的变化引起的，这使其成为疾病风险的良好预测因子。与啮齿动物相关的蜱传疾病的风险也因森林类型而异。我们强调需要阐明宿主群落组成对蜱传疾病风险的贡献。
