Where to find questing Ixodes frontalis ticks? Under bamboo bushes!

Plantard, Olivier; Hoch, Thierry; Daveu, Romain; Rispe, Claude; Stachurski, Frédéric; Boué, Franck; Poux, Valérie; Cebe, Nicolas; Verheyden, Hélène; René‐Martellet, Magalie; Chalvet‐Monfray, Karine; Cafiso, Alessandra; Olivieri, Emanuela; Moutailler, Sara; Pollet, Thomas V.; Agoulon, Albert

doi:10.1016/j.ttbdis.2020.101625

Cited by 10 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…8). Publications like the one by Agoulon et al (2019) and Plantard et al (2021), describing the habitat structure in which high numbers of I. frontalis larvae were collected from the vegetation, will also help to improve our knowledge of this up to now little-known tick species.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Atlas of ticks (Acari: Argasidae, Ixodidae) in Germany

et al. 2021

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An updated and increased compilation of georeferenced tick locations in Germany is presented here. This data collection extends the dataset published some years ago by another 1448 new tick locations, 900 locations of which were digitized from literature and 548 locations are published here for the first time. This means that a total of 3492 georeferenced tick locations is now available for Germany. The tick fauna of Germany includes two species of Argasidae in the genera Argas and Carios and 19 species of Ixodidae in the genera Dermacentor, Haemaphysalis, and Ixodes, altogether 21 tick species. In addition, three species of Ixodidae in the genera Hyalomma (each spring imported by migratory birds) and Rhipicephalus (occasionally imported by dogs returning from abroad with their owners) are included in the tick atlas. Of these, the georeferenced locations of 23 tick species are depicted in maps. The occurrence of the one remaining tick species, the recently described Ixodes inopinatus, is given at the level of the federal states. The most common and widespread tick species is Ixodes ricinus, with records in all 16 federal states. With the exception of Hamburg, Dermacentor reticulatus was also found in all federal states. The occurrence of the ixodid ticks Ixodes canisuga, Ixodes frontalis, Ixodes hexagonus and I. inopinatus were documented in at least 11 federal states each. The two mentioned argasid tick species were also documented in numerous federal states, the pigeon tick Argas reflexus in 11 and the bat tick Carios vespertilionis in seven federal states. The atlas of ticks in Germany and the underlying digital dataset in the supplement can be used to improve global tick maps or to study the effects of climate change and habitat alteration on the distribution of tick species.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Atlas of ticks (Acari: Argasidae, Ixodidae) in Germany

et al. 2021

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“…Nevertheless, the presence and abundance of wild ungulates cannot explain the predominance and abundance of I. frontalis, which is considered a passerine tick (Estrada-Peña et al, 2017). In this regard, it has been suggested that the abundance of I. frontalis could be higher in areas acting as roost sites for birds (Plantard et al, 2021). In the present study, this tick species was mostly found in suburban areas with high vegetation and tree density (sampling area 8) or with a high bramble density (sampling areas 1 and 2) where birds can nest and are protected from predators.…”

Section: Questing Tick Species Identifiedmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tick‐borne pathogens in ticks from urban and suburban areas of north‐western Spain: Importance of Ixodes frontalis harbouring zoonotic pathogens

Remesar

Matute

Díaz

et al. 2023

Medical Vet Entomology

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To identify the questing tick populations in urban and suburban areas from the city of Lugo (NW Spain), ticks were collected monthly by flagging. The presence of Borrelia spp., Rickettsia spp. and Anaplasma phagocytophilum also was determined by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and sequence analysis. Overall, 342 questing ticks were collected; the tick abundance was higher in suburban (95.9%) than in urban areas (4.1%). Ixodes frontalis was the most abundant (86.5%); 88.5% were larvae, 11.1% nymphs and 0.3% adults. All development stages of I. ricinus (7.3%) and adults of Rhipicephalus sanguineus sensu lato (5.8%) and Dermacentor reticulatus (0.3%) were found. Rickettsia spp. (31.9%) was more prevalent than Borrelia spp. (2.7%); no ticks were positive to A. phagocytophilum. Six Rickettsia species were identified (R. slovaca, R. monacensis, R. massiliae, R. raoultii, R. sibirica subsp. mongolitimonae and R. aeschielmanii); Candidatus Rickettsia rioja and two novel Rickettsia species also were detected. In addition, Borrelia turdi (1.8%) and B. valaisiana (0.9%) were identified in Ixodes ticks. This is the first report of R. slovaca in R. sanguineus s.l. and of R. monacensis, R. raoultii, R. slovaca, R. sibirica subsp. mongolitimonae and Ca. R. rioja in I. frontalis. Since most of the pathogens detected are zoonotic, their presence in these areas may have implications for public health.

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“…Ixodes inopinatus was originally described based on morphological characteristics and sequence variability along the mitochondrial 16S rRNA gene (Estrada-Peña et al, 2014). although recent work has suggested that the 16S rRNA gene alone is not adequate to delineate I. inopinatus from I. ricinus (Plantard et al, 2022). The results presented here extend this by showing that even full mitochondrial genome sequences are not able to distinguish I. ricinus from I. inopinatus samples (Figure 2A); only when considering nuclear sequences is the difference apparent (Figure 2B) as previously suggested (Noureddine et al, 2011; Poli et al, 2020).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is now believed that both species exist in sympatry across their range (Chitimia-Dobler et al, 2018; Rubel et al, 2021; Younsi et al, 2020). Ambiguity in morphological characteristics between I. ricinus and I. inopinatus requiring expert knowledge to delineate (Estrada-Peña et al, 2014) and recent challenges to use certain common genetic markers for species determination (Plantard et al, 2022) have complicated the unambiguous identification and study of I. inopinatus . This fact paired with recent work reporting I. inopinatus samples positive for tick-borne pathogens (i.e., B. burgdorferi sensu lato) (Hauck et al, 2020; Knoll et al, 2021) and movement on migratory birds (Toma et al, 2021) further underlies the need for a clear methodology to identify I. inopinatus so as to facilitate research into the overall biology of this tick species.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

GermanIxodes inopinatussamples may not actually represent this tick species

Rollins

Margos

Brachmann

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Ticks are important vectors of human and animal pathogens, but many questions remain unanswered regarding their taxonomy. Molecular sequencing methods have allowed research to start understanding the evolutionary history of even closely related tick species.Ixodes inopinatusis considered a sister species and highly similar toIxodes ricinus, an important vector of many tick-borne pathogens in Europe, but identification between these species remains ambiguous with disagreement on the geographic extent ofI. inopinatus. In 2018-2019, 1583 ticks were collected from breeding great tits (Parus major) in southern Germany, of which 45 were later morphologically identified asI. inopinatus. We aimed to confirm morphological identification using molecular tools. Utilizing two genetic markers (16S rRNA, TROSPA) (n=37) and whole genome sequencing of specific ticks (n=8), we were able to determine that German samples morphologically identified asI. inopinatus, genetically representI. ricinusregardless of previous morphological identification and most likely are notI. ricinus/I. inopinatushybrids. Further, our results showed that the entire mitochondrial genome, let alone singular mitochondrial genes (i.e., 16S), is unable to distinguish betweenI. ricinusandI. inopinatus. As most examples ofI. inopinatusin Germany were based on morphology and mitochondrial sequences, the results of the current study brings into question whetherI. inopinatuswas properly identified in previous research and if this species exists in Central Europe. Our results highlight the power of utilizing genomic data in answering questions regarding tick taxonomy even when closely related species are considered.

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Where to find questing Ixodes frontalis ticks? Under bamboo bushes!

Cited by 10 publications

References 27 publications

Atlas of ticks (Acari: Argasidae, Ixodidae) in Germany

Atlas of ticks (Acari: Argasidae, Ixodidae) in Germany

Tick‐borne pathogens in ticks from urban and suburban areas of north‐western Spain: Importance of Ixodes frontalis harbouring zoonotic pathogens

GermanIxodes inopinatussamples may not actually represent this tick species

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