title: Origins of recently emerged foci of the tick Dermacentor reticulatus in central Europe inferred from molecular markers.
abstract: The ornate dog tick Dermacentor reticulatus is vector of several blood parasites, including Babesia canis, a causative agent of babesiosis. The geographical range of D. reticulatus in Europe is discontinuous with a gap separating eastern and western macroregions. New foci observed in several locations in western and central Europe were considered an expansion of the western population, including foci in western Poland. In the present paper we used molecular markers to identify the origins of these foci, and we compared their genetic polymorphism to D. reticulatus collected in sites situated within the eastern population. The overall polymorphism in mt 16S rDNA was low, and all sites from the western population shared the same haplotype suggesting the expansion in this area. In the marker 5.8S rDNA-ITS2 we found no differences in polymorphism between sites from eastern Poland (eastern population), and newly emerged foci in western Poland considered a putative expansion zone of the western population. However, the sites from western Poland differed considerably from nearby German site. Our results show that foci in western Poland could not have originated from D. reticulatus from the western population, as previously thought. We found that the state border following river hinders considerably gene flow between adjacent sites what suggest that natural dispersal of D. reticulatus by wildlife is unlikely, and the emergence of new foci should rather be contributed to human-associated dispersal. We propose that livestock, and pets travelling with their owners are the most probable source of new foci, and they can easily transfer ticks within a country but not between countries.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology, Biological and Chemical Research Centre, Faculty of Biology, University of Warsaw, ul. Żwirki i Wigury 101, 02-089 Warszawa, Poland. Electronic address: akloch@biol.uw.edu.pl.
authors.forename: Agnieszka
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kloch
authors.affiliation: Department of Parasitology, Institute of Zoology, Faculty of Biology, University of Warsaw, ul. Miecznikowa 1, 02-096 Warsaw, Poland.
authors.forename: Ewa J
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Mierzejewska
authors.affiliation: W. Stefański Institute of Parasitology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, ul. Twarda 51/55, 00-818 Warsaw, Poland.
authors.forename: Grzegorz
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Karbowiak
authors.affiliation: I.I. Schmalhausen Institute of Zoology, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Vul. B. Khmelnytskogo 15, Kiev 01030, Ukraine.
authors.forename: Kateryna
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Slivinska
authors.affiliation: Department of Parasitology, Institute of Zoology, Faculty of Biology, University of Warsaw, ul. Miecznikowa 1, 02-096 Warsaw, Poland.
authors.forename: Mohammed
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Alsarraf
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology and Veterinary Diagnostics, Warsaw University of Life Sciences - SGGW, ul. Nowoursynowska 159c, 02-766 Warsaw, Poland.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rodo
authors.affiliation: Department of Parasitology, Institute of Zoology, Faculty of Biology, University of Warsaw, ul. Miecznikowa 1, 02-096 Warsaw, Poland.
authors.forename: Maciej
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kowalec
authors.affiliation: Department of Parasitology, Institute of Zoology, Faculty of Biology, University of Warsaw, ul. Miecznikowa 1, 02-096 Warsaw, Poland.
authors.forename: Dorota
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Dwużnik
authors.affiliation: I.I. Schmalhausen Institute of Zoology, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Vul. B. Khmelnytskogo 15, Kiev 01030, Ukraine.
authors.forename: Yuliya M
authors.initials: YM
authors.lastname: Didyk
authors.affiliation: Department of Parasitology, Institute of Zoology, Faculty of Biology, University of Warsaw, ul. Miecznikowa 1, 02-096 Warsaw, Poland.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bajer
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001403:Babesia / Q000502:physiology*; D001404:Babesiosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000469:parasitology / Q000635:transmission; D004275:DNA, Ribosomal / Q000235:genetics; D003870:Dermacentor / Q000235:genetics* / Q000469:parasitology; D004283:Dog Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000469:parasitology / Q000635:transmission; D004285:Dogs; D005828:Genetics, Population; D011044:Poland / Q000453:epidemiology; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D004275:DNA, Ribosomal
keywords: 16S rDNA; 5.8S rDNA-ITS2; Dermacentor reticulatus; Expansion zone; Population structure; Transmission