The Distribution and Host-Association of the Vector Chigger Species in Southwest China.

is a species of chigger mites, and it can serve as a transmitting vector of scrub typhus. Southwest China is an important focus of scrub typhus. Based on the field investigation in southwest China from 2001 to 2022, this article presents the first report on the distribution and infestation of on rodents and other sympatric small mammals in the region. A total of 2161 were identified from 218 small mammal hosts in 21 of 114 survey sites. The 17 host species of crossed 13 genera and 5 families in 3 orders (Rodentia, Eulipotyphla, and Scandentia), indicating the low host specificity of the mite. The Asian house rat () was the dominant host species in the 21 sites where were collected, and 49.38% of mites were found on . Different small mammals had different susceptibility to the infestation of . The prevalence ( = 27.66%), infestation mean abundance ( = 6 mites/per examined host), and mean intensity ( = 21.69 mites/per infested host) for on the shrew gymnure () were much higher than those on other host species ( < 0.05), indicating had a high susceptibility to the infestation of . The infestation indices for on small mammal hosts varied along different altitude and latitude gradients ( < 0.05), indicating the environmental heterogeneity of the mite infestation. exhibited an aggregated distribution among different individuals of its hosts. Besides the low host specificity of , the prevalence of the mite was positively correlated with the occurrence of scrub typhus, indicating the potential risk of the mite.