Dataset Information

Impact of abiotic factors, habitat type and urban wildlife on the ecology of hard ticks (Acari: Ixodidae) in urban and peri-urban habitats.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:Ticks are increasingly acknowledged as significant vectors for a wide array of pathogens in urban environments with reports of abundant tick populations in recreational areas. The study aims to contribute to a better knowledge of the abiotic and biotic factors which impact the ecology of hard ticks in urban and peri-urban habitats in Romania. METHODS:Questing ticks were collected by flagging in seven recreational locations, from four types of habitats in Cluj-Napoca, Romania: parks; gardens; a cemetery; and peri-urban forests. Hedgehogs, birds and micromammals were also sampled and searched for ticks, using standard methods (i.e. torch-based searches, ornithological mist nets, snap-traps, etc.), while vegetation was evaluated on surveyed areas. Data on questing ticks were converted to abundance indices. Mood's median tests were used to assess the relationship between the abiotic and biotic factors and the abundance of questing ticks. RESULTS:Two species of questing ticks were found: Ixodes ricinus (96.8%) and Haemaphysalis punctata (3.2%). Ixodes ricinus was also the predominant engorged tick collected from urban wildlife. For I. ricinus the highest mean total abundance index/location (total no. of ticks/100 m2) was recorded in the urban gardens (3.79, 95% CI:?±?1.59) and parks (2.68, 95% CI:?±?0.75), whereas the lowest mean total abundance index was noted in the peri-urban forests (0.06, 95% CI:?±?0.03) and the urban cemetery (0.04, 95% CI:?±?0.02). The adults and nymphs of I. ricinus displayed a bimodal activity pattern, while the larvae showed a unimodal questing behaviour with an autumnal peak. Positive correlations were found between the mean total abundance index and the rise in the daily mean temperature and relative humidity, and between the global abundance of questing ticks and the presence of hedgehogs in the respective locations (P?

SUBMITTER: Borsan SD

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7501622 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Impact of abiotic factors, habitat type and urban wildlife on the ecology of hard ticks (Acari: Ixodidae) in urban and peri-urban habitats.

Borşan Silvia-Diana SD Toma-Naic Andra A Péter Áron Á Sándor Attila D AD Peștean Cosmin C Mihalca Andrei-Daniel AD

Parasites & vectors 20200918 1

<h4>Background</h4>Ticks are increasingly acknowledged as significant vectors for a wide array of pathogens in urban environments with reports of abundant tick populations in recreational areas. The study aims to contribute to a better knowledge of the abiotic and biotic factors which impact the ecology of hard ticks in urban and peri-urban habitats in Romania.<h4>Methods</h4>Questing ticks were collected by flagging in seven recreational locations, from four types of habitats in Cluj-Napoca, Ro ...[more]

PMID: 32948235

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Project description:Hard ticks (Acari: Ixodidae) are considered the most important transmitters of pathogens in the temperate zone that covers most of Europe. In the era of climate change tick-borne diseases are predicted to undergo geographical range expansion toward the north through regions that are connected to southern areas of the continent by bird migration. This alone would justify the importance of synthesized knowledge on the association of tick species with avian hosts, yet birds also represent the most taxonomically and ecologically diverse part of urban vertebrate fauna. Birds frequently occur in gardens and near animal keeping facilities, thus playing a significant role in the dispersal of ticks and tick-borne pathogens in synanthropic environments. The primary aim of this review is to provide a comprehensive reference source (baseline data) for future studies, particularly in the context of discovering new tick-host associations after comparison with already published data. The records on the ixodid tick infestations of birds were assessed from nearly 200 papers published since 1952. In this period, 37 hard tick species were reported from 16 orders of avian hosts in Europe. Here we compile a list of these tick species, followed by the English and Latin name of all reported infested bird species, as well as the tick developmental stage and country of origin whenever this information was available. These data allowed a first-hand analysis of general trends regarding how and at which developmental stage of ticks tend to infest avian hosts. Five tick species that were frequently reported from birds and show a broad geographical distribution in the Western Palearctic (Ixodes arboricola, I. frontalis, I. ricinus, Haemaphysalis concinna and Hyalomma marginatum) were also selected for statistical comparisons. Differences were demonstrated between these tick species regarding their association with bird species that typically feed from the ground and those that rarely occur at the soil level. The ecology of these five bird-infesting tick species is also illustrated here according to avian orders, taking into account the ecology (habitat type) and activity (circadian rhythm and feeding level) of most bird species that represent a certain order.

Project description:Ticks are obligate blood feeders. The midgut is the first major region of the body where blood and microbes ingested with the blood meal come in contact with the tick's internal tissues. Little is known about protein expression in the digestive tract of ticks. In this study, for analysis of global gene expression during tick attachment and feeding, we generated and sequenced 1,679 random transcripts (ESTs) from cDNA libraries from the midguts of female ticks at varying stages of feeding.Sequence analysis of the 1,679 ESTs resulted in the identification of 835 distinct transcripts, from these, a total of 82 transcripts were identified as proteins putatively directly involved in blood meal digestion, including enzymes involved in oxidative stress reduction/antimicrobial activity/detoxification, peptidase inhibitors, protein digestion (cysteine-, aspartic-, serine-, and metallo-peptidases), cell, protein and lipid binding including mucins and iron/heme metabolism and transport. A lectin-like protein with a high match to lectins in other tick species, allergen-like proteins and surface antigens important in pathogen recognition and/or antimicrobial activity were also found. Furthermore, midguts collected from the 6-day-fed ticks expressed twice as many transcripts involved in bloodmeal processing as midguts from unfed/2-day-fed ticks.This tissue-specific transcriptome analysis provides an opportunity to examine the global expression of transcripts in the tick midgut and to compare the gut response to host attachment versus blood feeding and digestion. In contrast to those in salivary glands of other Ixodid ticks, most proteins in the D. variabilis midgut cDNA library were intracellular. Of the total ESTs associated with a function, an unusually large number of transcripts were associated with peptidases, cell, lipid and protein binding, and oxidative stress or detoxification. Presumably, this is consistent with their role in intracellular processing of the blood meal and response to microbial infections. The presence of many proteins with similar functions is consistent with the hypothesis that gene duplication contributed to the successful adaptation of ticks to hematophagy. Furthermore, these transcripts may be useful to scientists investigating the role of the tick midgut in blood-meal digestion, antimicrobial activity or the transmission of tick-borne pathogens.

Dataset Information

Impact of abiotic factors, habitat type and urban wildlife on the ecology of hard ticks (Acari: Ixodidae) in urban and peri-urban habitats.

Publications

Impact of abiotic factors, habitat type and urban wildlife on the ecology of hard ticks (Acari: Ixodidae) in urban and peri-urban habitats.

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