Raši Tomáš, Majláth Igor, Bogdziewicz Michał, Dudek Krzysztof, Majláthová Viktória, Włodarek Jan, Almáši Maroš, Vargová Blažena, Tryjanowski Piotr
Pavol Jozef Safarik University, Kosice, Slovak Republic.
Department of Systematic Zoology, Faculty of Biology, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland.
Ann Agric Environ Med. 2018 Jun 20;25(2):360-363. doi: 10.26444/aaem/89919. Epub 2018 May 17.
Tick abundance and the prevalence of the pathogens they carry have been increasing worldwide in the last decades, and is projected to increase even further. Despite the fact that problem is global, there still remain many gaps in the diagnosis and treatment of tick-borne diseases. The best protection from tick-borne pathogens, therefore, is prevention and avoidance of bites. Ticks mobility is limited so that their spatial distribution is strongly correlated with the presence of, especially with large mammals. In this study, the hypothesis was tested that tick abundance is higher on animal tracks in the forests than in adjacent habitats. This is an important issue because there are still several human habits and practices that can decrease the zoonoses risk. For example, during recreation in forest, people should always walk on the paths (including narrow animal's tracks) instead of wading through bushes.
Flagging of animal trails and near control transects were performed simultaneously. Next, collected ticks were counted, sexed and aged.
The abundance of ticks was almost 5-fold (Ixodes ricinus) and 3-fold (Dermacentor spp.) higher on animal trails than on adjacent control transects.
The results obtained support the hypothesis that ticks are more abundant on pathways than in adjacent habitats. Most likely, the pattern emerges because large mammals, like deer, which are the most important ticks hosts, use forest paths to move across the landscape and frequently move along the same routes. This research sends an important public message that these forest trails are hotspots of disease risk and should be avoided.
在过去几十年中，蜱虫数量及其携带病原体的流行率在全球范围内不断上升，预计还会进一步增加。尽管这一问题具有全球性，但蜱传疾病的诊断和治疗仍存在许多差距。因此，预防蜱虫叮咬是预防蜱传病原体的最佳方法。蜱虫的活动能力有限，因此它们的空间分布与大型哺乳动物的存在密切相关。在本研究中，我们检验了一个假设，即森林中动物小径上的蜱虫数量比相邻栖息地更多。这是一个重要问题，因为仍有一些人类习惯和行为可以降低人畜共患病风险。例如，在森林中休闲时，人们应该始终走在小径上（包括狭窄的动物小径），而不是穿过灌木丛。
同时对动物小径和附近的对照样带进行标记。接下来，对收集到的蜱虫进行计数、鉴别雌雄并确定年龄。
动物小径上的蜱虫数量（蓖麻硬蜱）几乎是相邻对照样带的5倍，（ Dermacentor属蜱虫）是3倍。
所得结果支持了蜱虫在小径上比在相邻栖息地更为丰富的假设。这种模式很可能是因为鹿等大型哺乳动物是最重要的蜱虫宿主，它们利用森林小径在景观中移动，并经常沿着相同路线移动。这项研究传递了一个重要的公共信息，即这些森林小径是疾病风险的热点，应予以避免。
