title: [POLYMORPHISM IN THE PHENOTYPIC STRUCTURE OF A POPULATION OF TAIGA TICK AND ITS EPIDEMIOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE].
abstract: The paper presents the results of 10-year (2005-2014) observations of an Ixodespersulcatus Schulze population. The purpose of this investigation was to trace long-term changes in the structure of the taiga tick population from the proportion of specimens with external skeletal anomalies and to assess a relationship between the pattern of imago phenotypic variation and the virus percentage of a carrier. There were a total of reports of the external skeletal structure of 1123 females gathered from plants to a flag in an area at 43 km from the Baikal Road connecting Irkutsk and the settlement of Listvyanka (Irkutsk Region). The proportion of specimens with anomalies averaged 37.8 +/- 1.88%. Four-to-seven varying anomalies were annually recorded. There was a preponderance of scutum impairment (an average of 17.0 +/- 3.08% of all females) that was a conglomerate of prominences and indentations along the entire clypeus surface and that was denoted P9. The nature of a change in the proportion of ticks with two anomalies (average monthly registration rate, 2.5 +/- 0.66%) is exhibited by three-year high-frequency oscillations whereas the specimens with P9 anomalies fail to show so clear cycling. The percentage of virus-containing taiga ticks was individually determined estimating the level of tick-borne encephalitis virus antigen by an enzyme immunoassay. A total of 4022 ticks were examined. The male and female data were pooled. There was a positive correlation between the change in the proportion of females with P9 anomaly and the infection of ticks in the examined population (Spearman's correlation coefficient, 0.88; P < 0.01). This supports the earlier observation of the greater epidemiological significance of the imago of a taiga tick with external skeletal anomalies particularly with considerably marked ones.
authors.forename: I M
authors.initials: IM
authors.lastname: Morozov
authors.forename: A N
authors.initials: AN
authors.lastname: Alekseev
authors.forename: E V
authors.initials: EV
authors.lastname: Dubinina
authors.forename: A Ya
authors.initials: AY
authors.lastname: Nikitin
authors.forename: O V
authors.initials: OV
authors.lastname: Melnikova
authors.forename: E I
authors.initials: EI
authors.lastname: Andaev
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000956:Antigens, Viral / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D004669:Encephalitis Viruses, Tick-Borne / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D004675:Encephalitis, Tick-Borne / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D018884:Ixodes / Q000276:immunology / Q000821:virology; D008297:Male; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D011157:Population Dynamics; D012800:Siberia / Q000453:epidemiology; D066188:Taiga
chemical_list: D000956:Antigens, Viral