Frequent isolation of Francisella tularensis from Dermacentor reticulatus ticks in an enzootic focus of tularaemia.
A total of 924 questing Dermacentor reticulatus (Fabricius), 504 Ixodes ricinus (L.), sixty Haemaphysalis concinna Koch and 718 mosquitoes (Aedes spp.) were examined in a floodplain forest ecosystem during the 1994-95 outbreak of tularaemia in South Moravia, Czech Republic. Francisella tularensis was not isolated from H.concinna ticks or Aedes spp. mosquitoes, whereas twenty-one isolates were recovered from the other haematophagous arthropods. Dermacentor reticulatus revealed a significantly higher infection rate (2.6%) than I.ricinus (0.2%). This tick species acts as principal vector for tularaemia in the enzootic focus. Monitoring of D.reticulatus for F.tularensis thus seems to be a very efficient approach in the surveillance of tularaemia in the flood-plain forest ecosystems of Europe.
Hubálek
Z
Z
Institute of Landscape Ecology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Brno, Czech Republic.
Treml
F
F
Halouzka
J
J
Juricová
Z
Z
Hunady
M
M
Janík
V
V
D000330:Aedes / Q000382:microbiology; D000818:Animals; D001179:Arthropod Vectors / Q000382:microbiology; D018153:Czech Republic; D003870:Dermacentor / Q000382:microbiology*; D017753:Ecosystem; D005603:Francisella / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D006801:Humans; D018884:Ixodes / Q000382:microbiology; D011817:Rabbits / Q000382:microbiology; D013987:Ticks / Q000382:microbiology; D014406:Tularemia / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology*