Salomon Jordan, Montemayor Haydee, Durden Cassandra, Abiara Dorcas, Busselman Rachel E, Hamer Gabriel L, Hamer Sarah A
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Program, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, United States of America.
Department of Veterinary Integrative Biosciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2025 Aug 21;20(8):e0330826. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0330826. eCollection 2025.
Management of tick-borne disease necessitates an understanding of tick phenology, tick-host associations, and pathogen dynamics. In a recreational hotspot outside of one of the largest cities in the United States, we conducted a year of monthly standardized tick drag sampling and wildlife trapping in Sam Houston National Forest, a high use recreation site near Houston in east Texas, US. By sampling 150 wildlife hosts of 18 species, including rodents, meso-mammals, deer, reptiles, and amphibians, we collected 87 blood samples, 90 ear biopsies, and 861 ticks representing four species (Amblyomma americanum, Dermacentor variabilis, Ixodes scapularis and Ixodes texanus). Drag sampling yielded 1,651 questing ticks of three species: A. americanum (921), D. variabilis (10), and I. scapularis (720). Off-host larval A. americanum abundance peaked in July, followed by peak infestations of wildlife, predominantly raccoons, in August. Off-host I. scapularis larvae abundance peaked in spring (March-May), while very few were removed from hosts and only a single I. scapularis nymph was found throughout the study via dragging in June. In contrast, both off-host and on-host adult I. scapularis occurred most frequently in the winter. Overall, tick infections included 25.3% (183/725) with Rickettsia buchneri, 15.5% (112/725) Rickettsia amblyommatis, 8.0% (58/725) Rickettsia tillamookensis, 0.8% (6/725) Rickettsia spp., and a single tick with a hard tick relapsing fever Borrelia spp.; no tick tested positive for Borrelia burgdorferi. Characterizing tick phenology, tick-host associations, and tick-borne bacteria fills important knowledge gaps for the risk of tick-borne diseases in pine-dominated forests of this region.
蜱传疾病的管理需要了解蜱的物候学、蜱与宿主的关联以及病原体动态。在美国最大城市之一以外的一个休闲热点地区，我们在美国得克萨斯州东部休斯顿附近的一个高使用量休闲场所——山姆休斯顿国家森林，进行了为期一年的每月标准化蜱拖网采样和野生动物诱捕。通过对18种、共150只野生动物宿主进行采样，包括啮齿动物、中型哺乳动物、鹿、爬行动物和两栖动物，我们采集了87份血液样本、90份耳部活检样本以及代表四种蜱（美洲钝缘蜱、变异革蜱、肩突硬蜱和德克萨斯硬蜱）的861只蜱。拖网采样捕获了1651只属于三个物种的伺机蜱：美洲钝缘蜱（921只）、变异革蜱（10只）和肩突硬蜱（720只）。非宿主美洲钝缘蜱幼虫数量在7月达到峰值，随后在8月野生动物（主要是浣熊）的感染率达到峰值。非宿主肩突硬蜱幼虫数量在春季（3月至5月）达到峰值，而通过拖网在整个研究期间从宿主身上采集到的数量很少，6月仅发现一只肩突硬蜱若虫。相比之下，非宿主和宿主上的成年肩突硬蜱在冬季出现的频率最高。总体而言，蜱的感染情况包括：25.3%（183/725）感染布氏立克次体，15.5%（112/725）感染美洲钝缘蜱立克次体，8.0%（58/725）感染蒂拉莫克立克次体，0.8%（6/725）感染立克次体属，还有一只蜱感染了一种硬蜱复发性发热疏螺旋体属；没有蜱检测出伯氏疏螺旋体呈阳性。了解蜱的物候学、蜱与宿主的关联以及蜱传细菌，填补了该地区以松树为主的森林中蜱传疾病风险方面的重要知识空白。
