Witold Stefański Institute of Parasitology of Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00-818, Warsaw, Poland.
Institute of Parasitology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Hlinkova, 3, 04001, Košice, Slovakia.
Acta Parasitol. 2020 Sep;65(3):636-643. doi: 10.2478/s11686-020-00184-4. Epub 2020 Mar 25.
Distribution and biology of Pholeoixodes ticks is not very well understood. The goal of the study was to collect new data on the Pholeoixodes tick occurrence in Slovakia.
Tick infestation of red foxes in the regions of Košice, Prešov, Bratislava and Žilina was studied during the period 2017-2018. Ticks were collected from the fur of animals using tweezers and identified using appropriate keys. In total, 146 red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) were investigated.
In total, 39 (26.7%) of animals were found to be infected with ticks from five species. Pholeoixodes ticks were found on 13 (3.4%) of the foxes: Ixodes hexagonus (Leach, 1815) on 5 specimens (3.4%), in the Košice, Prešov and Žilina regions; I. crenulatus (Koch, 1844) on 8 specimens (5.5%) in the Prešov and Bratislava regions; Ixodes ricinus (Linnaeus, 1758) collected from 25 (17.2%) foxes in every locality; Dermacentor reticulatus (Fabricius, 1794) from 5 foxes (3.4%) in the Košice, Prešov and Žilina regions; Haemaphysalis concinna (Koch, 1844), from 4 foxes (2.8%) from the Košice region.
Ixodes hexagonus has been previously recorded in Slovakia. However, this is the first finding of I. crenulatus in the country. The morphological features of the I. crenulatus specimens found in Slovakia were identical to those of ticks described in Poland and descriptions given in identification keys.
Pholeoixodes 蜱的分布和生物学特性尚未得到很好的了解。本研究的目的是收集斯洛伐克 Pholeoixodes 蜱发生的新数据。
在 2017-2018 年期间,对科希策、普雷绍夫、布拉迪斯拉发和日利纳地区的红狐进行了蜱虫感染研究。使用镊子从动物的皮毛中收集蜱虫,并使用适当的鉴定工具进行鉴定。总共调查了 146 只红狐(Vulpes vulpes)。
总共发现 39 只(26.7%)动物感染了来自五个物种的蜱虫。在 13 只(3.4%)狐狸身上发现了 Pholeoixodes 蜱:科希策、普雷绍夫和日利纳地区的 5 只(3.4%)狐狸身上发现了Ixodes hexagonus(Leach,1815);普雷绍夫和布拉迪斯拉发地区的 8 只(5.5%)狐狸身上发现了 I. crenulatus(Koch,1844);每个地点的 25 只(17.2%)狐狸身上都采集到了Ixodes ricinus(Linnaeus,1758);科希策、普雷绍夫和日利纳地区的 5 只(3.4%)狐狸身上发现了 Dermacentor reticulatus(Fabricius,1794);科希策地区的 4 只(2.8%)狐狸身上发现了 Haemaphysalis concinna(Koch,1844)。
Ixodes hexagonus 以前在斯洛伐克有记录。然而,这是该国首次发现 I. crenulatus。在斯洛伐克发现的 I. crenulatus 标本的形态特征与在波兰描述的蜱虫和鉴定工具中的描述完全一致。