• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.56 no.6
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• pp.589-596
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• 2018

Ticks are the vectors of various pathogens, threatening human health and animal production across the globe. Here, for the first time we detected Ricketssia spp., Borrelia spp. and protozoan in ticks from Poyang Lake region in Jiangxi Province of eastern China. In 3 habitat categories and on 12 host species, 311 ticks from 11 species were collected. Haemaphysalis longicornis was the predominant species, accounting for 55.63%, followed by Rhipicephalus microplus, Haemaphysalis flava and Ixodes granulatus. Of the collected ticks, 7.07% were positive for tick-borne pathogens, and H. longicornis and H. flava were found to be co-infected with Ricketssia spp. and protozoan. H. flava was the most detected positive for tick-borne pathogens, whereas H. longicornis had the lowest infection rate, and the difference in infection rates between tick species was significant (${\chi}^2=61.24$, P<0.001). Furthermore, adult ticks demonstrated remarkably greater infection rate than immature ticks (${\chi}^2=10.12$, P=0.018), meanwhile ticks on Erinaceidae showed significantly higher positivity than ticks collected on other host species (${\chi}^2=108.44$, P<0.001). Genetic fragment sequencing and analyses showed at least 4 pathogen species presence in ticks, namely Borrelia yangtzensis, Rickettsia slovaca or Rickettsia raoultii related genospecies, Babesia vogeli and Hepatozoon canis or Hepatozoon felis related genospecies. The finding indicates that the abundant ticks can carry diverse pathogens in Poyang Lake region, and pathogen infection is highly related to species, vertebrate hosts and life stages of ticks.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Service
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.29-34
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• 2016

This study was carried out to investigate the tick-borne pathogens from one hundred nineteen cattle farms (38 farms of Andong, 41 of Yeongju, 12 of Uiseong, 5 of Cheongsong, 5 of Yoengyang, 18 of Bonghwa) in northern areas of Gyeongbuk province by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Among 119 cattle farms, the positive ratios against Babesia, Theileria, Anaplasma, Ehrlichia and Rickettsia were 3.4% (4/119), 10.1% (12/119), 6.7% (8/119), 1.7% (2/119) and 16.8% (20/119), respectively. Also, the PCR results revealed that 8 farms were positive for T. sergenti in positive of Theileria and 2 farms were positive for A. phagocytophilum in positive of Anaplasma. Therefore, further studies regarding vectors, environmental condition, interaction between domestic and wild animals and development of control program are needed to reduce the numbers of bovine tick-borne disease in northern areas of Gyeongbuk province.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Service
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.54-60
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• 1994

Anaplasmosis is a tick-borne disease mainly of cattle, sheep, and goats. Anaplasmosis in goat had been reported at last year by authors. The disease brought the economic losses in the goat farm in Chonbuk province. In order to treat the disease, a long-acting formulation terramycin injectable solution was used experimental animals which indigenous goats were sick with moderate anemia. We were devided into two groups was treated with single dosage (20mg /kg of body weight). one group was treated with single injection, the other group was treated with twice of the same dosage intramusculary injection. The results indicate that the use of long-acting terramycin would minimize clinical signs of anaplasmosis infection in goat. After treament the differrences of hematological appearences and parasitaemia were observed in the effect of terramycin treatment. obviously, increased value of RBC. HB and HCT, and parasitaemia by means of Giemsa staining and acrydine orange staining was observed decreased due to treatment.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.427-437
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• 2019

Background: Climate change is believed to be continuously affecting ticks by influencing their habitat suitability. However, we attempted to model the climate change-induced impacts on future genus Rhipicephalus distribution considering the major environmental factors that would influence the tick. Therefore, 50 tick occuance points were taken to model the potential distribution using maximum entropy (MaxEnt) software and 19 climatic variables, taking into account the ability for future climatic change under representative concentration pathways (RCPs) 4.5 and 8.5, were used. Results: MaxEnt model performance was tested and found with the AUC value of 0.99 which indicates excellent goodness-of-fit and predictive accuracy. Current models predict increased temperatures, both in the mid and end terms together with possible changes of other climatic factors like precipitation which may lead to higher tick-borne disease risks associated with expansion of the range of the targeted tick distribution. Distribution maps were constructed for the current, 2050, and 2070 for the two greenhouse gas scenarios and the most dramatic scenario; RCP 8.5 produced the highest increase probable distribution range. Conclusions: The future potential distribution of the genus Rhipicephalus show potential expansion to the new areas due to the future climatic suitability increase. These results indicate that the genus population of the targeted tick could emerge in areas in which they are currently lacking; increased incidence of tick-borne diseases poses further risk which can affect cattle production and productivity, thereby affecting the livelihood of smallholding farmers. Therefore, it is recommended to implement climate change adaptation practices to minimize the impacts.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Service
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.113-128
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• 2020

For estimating the prevalence of bovine infectious disease agents, the pathogens were classified as follows: the digestive disease agents, respiratory disease agents, reproductive disease agents, and tick-borne disease agents. This study covered 81 published papers regarding bovine infectious diseases in Korea that determined the presence of diverse pathogens or the antibodies elicited by the infectious agents in cattle from 2010 to 2019. In total, 59,504 cows were involved in the papers reporting the causative agents in their cases. The disease prevalence for the digestive, respiratory, reproductive, and tick-borne cases was 9.0%, 13.4%, 10.4%, and 7.8%, respectively. Bovine viral diarrhea virus, Escherichia coli, Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis, and Eimeria spp were more significantly prevalent in the cows under one-year age than over one-year age. Bovine viral diarrhea virus, Escherichia coli, Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis, and Anaplasma spp. were more significantly prevalent in Hanwoo than dairy cattle. Coxiella burnetii, Neospora caninum, and Theilieria spp. were more significantly prevalent in dairy cattle than Hanwoo. Tick-borne disease agents were more prevalent in cows grazing than the case in housing. Our analytic data obtained from this study emphasize the need for more studies on the occurrence of these pathogens according to the breed, age, and the region, to come up with bovine infectious disease control measures in Korea.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.58 no.3
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• pp.327-331
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• 2020

Toxoplasma gondii are intracellular protozoa that can cause neurological disease or death in fetuses and even in immunocompromised human adults. Ticks are recognized as vectors of many microorganisms including viruses, bacteria, and protozoa. Recent studies detected T. gondii in various tick species in many countries. In this study, we performed PCR detection of the T. gondii B1 gene from Haemaphysalis ticks collected from vegetation in 4 localities, Wonju, Gunsan, Miryang, and Yangsan, in Korea. We analyzed DNA from 314 ticks (268 Haemaphysalis longicornis and 46 Haemaphysalis flava) and the B1 gene of T. gondii was detected in 13 of these. The detection of T. gondii in ticks differed significantly by region (P=0.021). T. gondii was detected in the following percentages of collected ticks: 3.7% (7 of 189) in Gunsan, 10% (5 of 50) in Wonju, 16.7% (1 of 6) in Yangsan, and 0% (0 of 69) in Miryang. The detection of T. gondii in ticks was not associated with tick species or development stage. This is the first report of T. gondii detection in ticks in Korea. Our results provide important information necessary to understand toxoplasmosis transmission.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.51 no.4
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• pp.213-214
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• 2018

Lyme borreliosis (LB) is the most common tick-borne infectious disease in North America, and it was designated as a national notifiable infectious disease in Korea in December 2010. While no cases in Jeju-do were recorded from 2012 to 2016, a recent survey reported that the seroprevalence of Borrelia burgdorferi using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays in horses in Jeju-do was 19.0% (95% confidence interval, 12.0 to 28.3%). This fact suggests that horses may be a potential reservoir of LB in Jeju-do and that individuals in close contact with horses may be a high-risk group. Thus, a serological study in this high-risk group is urgently needed.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.52 no.5
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• pp.507-511
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• 2014

Outbreaks of tick-borne disease cases in Santa Catarina, Brazil are known, but the presence of the pathogen DNA has never been determined. In this study, the first survey of Anaplasma marginale, Babesia bigemina, and Babesia bovis DNA on blood samples of 33 cattle from an outbreak in Ponte Alta Municipality, Santa Catarina, Brazil, has been carried out. A multiplex PCR detected 54.5% of animals were co-infected with 2 or 3 parasites, while 24.2% were infected with only 1 species. The most prevalent agent was B. bigemina (63.6%) followed by A. marginale (60.6%). This is the first report of tick-borne disease pathogens obtained by DNA analysis in Southern Brazil.

• Journal of Veterinary Science
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.37.1-37.14
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• 2021

Background: Ticks are one of the most common external parasites in dogs, and are associated with the transmission of a number of major zoonoses, which result in serious harm to human health and even death. Also, the increasing number of pet dogs and pet owners in China has caused concern regarding human tick-borne illnesses. Accordingly, studies are needed to gain a complete understanding of the bacterial composition and diversity of the ticks that parasitize dogs. Objectives: To date, there have been relatively few reports on the analysis of the bacterial community structure and diversity in ticks that parasitize dogs. The objective of this study was to investigate the microbial composition and diversity of parasitic ticks of dogs, and assessed the effect of tick sex and geographical region on the bacterial composition in two tick genera collected from dogs in China. Methods: A total of 178 whole ticks were subjected to a 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) next generation sequencing analysis. The Illumina MiSeq platform targeting the V3-V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene was used to characterize the bacterial communities of the collected ticks. Sequence analysis and taxonomic assignment were performed using QIIME 2 and the GreenGene database, respectively. After clustering the sequences into taxonomic units, the sequences were quality-filtered and rarefied. Results: After pooling 24 tick samples, we identified a total of 2,081 operational taxonomic units, which were assigned to 23 phyla and 328 genera, revealing a diverse bacterial community profile. The high, moderate and low prevalent taxa include 46, 101, and 182 genera, respectively. Among them, dominant taxa include environmental bacterial genera, such as Psychrobacter and Burkholderia. Additionally, some known tick-associated endosymbionts were also detected, including Coxiella, Rickettsia, and Ricketssiella. Also, the potentially pathogenic genera Staphylococcus and Pseudomonas were detected in the tick pools. Moreover, our preliminary study found that the differences in microbial communities are more dependent on the sampling location than tick sex in the tick specimens collected from dogs. Conclusions: The findings of this study support the need for future research on the microbial population present in ticks collected from dogs in China.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.61 no.1
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• pp.72-77
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• 2023

Human babesiosis is a tick-borne disease induced by the genus Babesia and has been significantly reported in the Republic of Korea. This report shows the cases of 2 patients with human babesiosis who traveled to the USA in 2019. The 2 patients experienced fever and had travel histories to babesiosis-endemic regions. The diagnoses of both cases were verified by the identification of Babesia-infected red blood cells on blood smears. One patient was found to be infected with Babesia microti using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for 18S rRNA, which discovered the phylogenetic link to the B. microti strain endemic in the USA. The 2 patients recovered from fever with subsequent hemoparasite clearance. Babesiosis could be diagnosed in anyone with histories of travel to babesiosis-endemic countries and tick bites. Furthermore, Babesia-specific PCR is required for determining geno-and phenotypic characteristics.