Department of Disease Control, Laboratory of Parasitology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Hokkaido 060-0818, Japan.
Department of Wildlife, Museum of Wildlife and Fish Biology, Fish and Conservation Biology, University of California at Davis, Davis CA 95616, USA.
Acta Trop. 2023 Oct;246:106992. doi: 10.1016/j.actatropica.2023.106992. Epub 2023 Aug 3.
The Asian rodent tick (Ixodes granulatus) occurs throughout much of Asia, it frequently bites humans, and zoonotic pathogens, such as Borrelia burgdorferi (sensu lato) and Rickettsia honei, have been detected within it. Unfortunately, the ecology of I. granulatus remains poorly known, including drivers of its abundance and the interaction ecology with its sylvatic hosts. To elucidate the ecology of this medically important species, the habitat preferences of I. granulatus were assessed in Singapore and Malaysia. Ixodes granulatus showed strong associations with old forest habitats, though across different age classes of old forest there was limited variation in abundance. Ixodes granulatus was absent from other habitats including young forest, scrubland, and parks/gardens. Within its sylvatic rodent hosts, a range of factors were found to be statistically significant predictors of I. granulatus load and/or infestation risk, including sex and body condition index. Male rodents were significantly more likely to be infested and to have higher loads than females, similarly, animals with a lower body condition index were significantly more likely to be infested. Proactive public health efforts targeted at preventing bites by this tick should carefully consider its ecology to minimise ecological overlap between humans and I. granulatus.
亚洲革蜱（Ixodes granulatus）分布于亚洲大部分地区，它经常叮咬人类，并且已经在其中检测到伯氏疏螺旋体（Borrelia burgdorferi）（广义）和日本立克次体（Rickettsia honei）等动物源性病原体。不幸的是，亚洲革蜱的生态学仍然知之甚少，包括其丰度的驱动因素以及与野生宿主的相互作用生态学。为了阐明这种具有重要医学意义的物种的生态学，评估了新加坡和马来西亚的亚洲革蜱的栖息地偏好。亚洲革蜱与古老森林栖息地密切相关，尽管在不同年龄的古老森林中，其丰度的变化有限。亚洲革蜱不存在于其他栖息地，包括幼林、灌丛和公园/花园。在其野生啮齿动物宿主中，发现一系列因素是亚洲革蜱负载和/或感染风险的统计学显著预测因子，包括性别和身体状况指数。雄性啮齿动物比雌性啮齿动物更容易感染和携带更高的负载，同样，身体状况指数较低的动物更容易感染。针对预防这种蜱虫叮咬的主动公共卫生措施应仔细考虑其生态学，以尽量减少人类与亚洲革蜱之间的生态重叠。
