Kennedy Ashley C, Buoni Michael, Walls Jacob, Palmer Talisha, Marek Emma
1Mosquito Control Section, Division of Fish and Wildlife, Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, Newark, DE.
2Delaware Technical Community College, Georgetown, DE.
J Am Vet Med Assoc. 2025 Aug 8:1-7. doi: 10.2460/javma.25.05.0329.
To assess which ticks and tick-borne pathogens pose the greatest risk to companion animals and their human owners and handlers in Delaware.
We established a statewide passive surveillance program wherein participating veterinary clinics and individual pet owners in Delaware contributed ticks removed from animals in their care. We identified ticks to species and life stage and tested a subset (approx 20%) of ticks collected during the first 4 years for pathogens of medical and veterinary interest.
Between 2019 and 2023, program participants throughout the state contributed 1,533 ticks from 522 individual host animals. Submitted ticks represented 9 tick species (in order of abundance: Amblyomma americanum, Dermacentor variabilis, Haemaphysalis longicornis, Ixodes scapularis, Amblyomma maculatum, Dermacentor albipictus, Ixodes cookei, Haemaphysalis leporispalustris, and Rhipicephalus sanguineus sensu lato) from 5 host species (dogs, cats, goats, rabbits, and a ferret). Screening revealed 6 pathogens (Borrelia burgdorferi, Borrelia miyamotoi, Anaplasma phagocytophilum, Ehrlichia chaffeensis, Ehrlichia ewingii, and Ehrlichia canis) within tested ticks.
Companion animals in Delaware are at risk of encountering a variety of tick species and associated pathogens.
This study was the first in Delaware to document and measure the specific tick-associated risks facing Delaware pets. These findings provide a baseline for tick-borne pathogen prevalence in ticks encountered by companion animals in Delaware and thus serve as a measure of those animals' exposure to various tick-associated infections, highlighting the continuing need for tick awareness and tick bite prevention.
评估在特拉华州，哪些蜱虫及蜱传病原体对伴侣动物及其主人和饲养者构成最大风险。
我们建立了一项全州范围的被动监测计划，特拉华州参与计划的兽医诊所和个体宠物主人提供他们所照料动物身上采集的蜱虫。我们将蜱虫鉴定到物种和生活阶段，并对前4年收集的蜱虫中的一个子集（约20%）进行了医学和兽医学关注病原体的检测。
2019年至2023年期间，全州的计划参与者从522只个体宿主动物身上提供了1533只蜱虫。提交的蜱虫代表了来自5种宿主物种（狗、猫、山羊、兔子和一只雪貂）的9种蜱虫（按数量顺序：美洲钝缘蜱、变异革蜱、长角血蜱、肩突硬蜱、斑点钝缘蜱、白纹革蜱、库克硬蜱、沼泽兔血蜱和血红扇头蜱）。筛查在检测的蜱虫中发现了6种病原体（伯氏疏螺旋体、宫本疏螺旋体、嗜吞噬细胞无形体、查菲埃立克体、尤因埃立克体和犬埃立克体）。
特拉华州的伴侣动物有接触多种蜱虫物种及相关病原体的风险。
本研究是特拉华州首次记录和衡量该州宠物面临的与蜱虫相关的具体风险。这些发现为特拉华州伴侣动物接触到的蜱虫中蜱传病原体的流行情况提供了基线，从而作为衡量这些动物接触各种蜱虫相关感染的指标，突出了持续提高蜱虫防范意识和预防蜱虫叮咬的必要性。
