ABSTRACT
The role of birds in the focus of tick-borne infections was studied from 2006 to 2011. The frequency index of ticks carried by ground dwelling birds is about 49.7%. The index of their abundance is 3.8. The larvae of ticks have been found on birds in 43.8% of cases. Nymphs and adult ticks have been found in 39.9 and 16.3%, respectively. It was revealed that Ixodex pavlovskyi was transferred and dominated in the urban microfoci because of its ornithophily. The markers of infectious agents have been recorded in 42 of 60 bird species under study.
Subject(s)
Ixodes/pathogenicity , Larva/pathogenicity , Tick-Borne Diseases/epidemiology , Tick-Borne Diseases/transmission , Animals , Birds/virology , Humans , Ixodes/classification , Russia , Tick-Borne Diseases/virology , Viruses/isolation & purification , Viruses/pathogenicityABSTRACT
We studied two urban and two suburban biotypes of Tomsk City for tick-transmitted diseases prevalence in naturally collected ticks. Tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) was found in 6.5% of tick samples, West Nile virus (WNV) in 2.2%, Borrelia spp. in 8%, Rickettsia spp. in 2.5%, and Ehrlichia spp. in 1.7% of samples. Genetic markers of Powassan virus, Bartonella spp., and Balbesia spp. were not found. Analysis of the genetic diversity of revealed pathogens resulted in the following conclusions: 1. TBEV strains belong to Siberian and Far-Eastern subtypes, and Far-Eastern subtype of TBEV is most frequent in urban biotypes (up to 43 % of urban strains of TBEV); 2. WNV strains belong to genotype la; 3. Borrelia spp. were classified as B. garinii; 4. Rickettsia spp. were classified as R. tarasevichiae and probably as a new Rickettsia raoultii subspecies; 5. Ehrlichia spp. were classified as E. muris. The coexistence of several pathogens was found in 5.7% of tick samples, and the most frequent combination was TBEV + Borrelia spp.