Vada Rachele, Zanet Stefania, Battisti Elena, Ferroglio Ezio
Department of Veterinary Sciences, University of Turin, 10095 Grugliasco, Italy.
Vet Sci. 2024 Oct 15;11(10):508. doi: 10.3390/vetsci11100508.
Hiking trails may act as hotspots at the wildlife-human interface, posing an acarological risk for people and their pets. Ticks that are maintained in the environment by wild animals may quest on people walking along the trails. Assessing the risk of tick bites for people involved in outdoor activities is a further step in mitigating the risk of tick-borne diseases. This work describes the variation of tick abundance along a gradient of distances from hiking trails, where wildlife passage is favored by higher accessibility. Hiking trails with dense vegetation on the sides were sampled for ticks along a 100 m dragging transect, located in a natural park in North-Western Italy. Additional transects were replicated at 1, 2 and 4 m away from the trail on both sides. After morphological identification, descriptive statistics and modeling were applied to determine the abundance patterns across distances. Larvae were most abundant near the trail, peaking at 1 m and dropping sharply at further distances. Nymphs showed a more gradual and consistent decrease at progressing distance from the trail. Few adults were collected, preventing the identification of a clear trend. With higher tick abundance, the immediate vicinity of hiking trails may represent a source of acarological risk for humans and pets.
徒步小径可能成为野生动物与人类接触界面的热点区域，对人类及其宠物构成蜱螨学风险。由野生动物维持在环境中的蜱虫可能会叮咬沿着小径行走的人。评估参与户外活动的人被蜱虫叮咬的风险是降低蜱传疾病风险的进一步举措。这项工作描述了沿着与徒步小径距离梯度的蜱虫丰度变化情况，在那里较高的可达性有利于野生动物通过。在意大利西北部一个自然公园内，沿着一条100米的拖网样带对两侧植被茂密的徒步小径进行蜱虫采样。在小径两侧距离1米、2米和4米处重复设置额外的样带。经过形态学鉴定后，应用描述性统计和建模来确定不同距离的丰度模式。幼虫在小径附近最为丰富，在1米处达到峰值，并在更远的距离急剧下降。若虫随着与小径距离的增加呈现出更平缓且一致的减少趋势。采集到的成虫数量很少，无法确定明显的趋势。由于蜱虫丰度较高，徒步小径的紧邻区域可能对人类和宠物构成蜱螨学风险源。
