Parasites, Hosts and Diseases

The Korea Society for Parasitology and Tropical Medicine (대한기생충학·열대의학회)
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Larval Chigger Mites Collected from Small Mammals in 3 Provinces, Korea

  • Lee, In-Yong (Department of Environmental Medical Biology, Yonsei University College of Medicine) ;
  • Song, Hyeon-Je (Department of Clinical Pathology, Gwangju Health College) ;
  • Choi, Yeon-Joo (Institute of Global Disease Control and Department of Microbiology, College of Medicine, Konkuk University) ;
  • Shin, Sun-Hye (Institute of Global Disease Control and Department of Microbiology, College of Medicine, Konkuk University) ;
  • Choi, Min-Kyung (Institute of Global Disease Control and Department of Microbiology, College of Medicine, Konkuk University) ;
  • Kwon, So-Hyun (Institute of Global Disease Control and Department of Microbiology, College of Medicine, Konkuk University) ;
  • Shin, E-Hyun (Division of Medical Entomology, National Institute of Health) ;
  • Park, Chan (Division of Medical Entomology, National Institute of Health) ;
  • Kim, Heung-Chul (5th Medical Detachment, 168th Multifunctional Medical Battalion) ;
  • Klein, Terry A. (Public Health Command Region-Pacific) ;
  • Park, Kyung-Hee (Institute of Global Disease Control and Department of Microbiology, College of Medicine, Konkuk University) ;
  • Jang, Won-Jong (Institute of Global Disease Control and Department of Microbiology, College of Medicine, Konkuk University)
  • Received : 2013.10.14
  • Accepted : 2014.02.25
  • Published : 2014.04.30
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Abstract

A total of 9,281 larval chigger mites were collected from small mammals captured at Hwaseong-gun, Gyeonggi-do (Province) (2,754 mites from 30 small mammals), Asan city, Chungcheongnam-do (3,358 mites from 48 mammals), and Jangseong-gun, Jeollanam-do (3,169 for 62 mammals) from April-November 2009 in the Republic of Korea (= Korea) and were identified to species. Leptotrombidium pallidum was the predominant species in Hwaseong (95.8%) and Asan (61.2%), while Leptotrombidium scutellare was the predominant species collected from Jangseong (80.1%). Overall, larval chigger mite indices decreased from April (27.3) to June (4.9), then increased in September (95.2) and to a high level in November (169.3). These data suggest that L. pallidum and L. scutellare are the primary vectors of scrub typhus throughout their range in Korea. While other species of larval chigger mites were also collected with some implications in the transmission of Orientia tsutsugamushi, they only accounted for 11.2% of all larval chigger mites collected from small mammals.

Keywords

References

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