Monitoring the expansion of <i>Dermacentor reticulatus</i> and occurrence of canine babesiosis in Poland in 2016–2018

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Abstract

Background

The significance of tick-borne diseases has increased considerably in recent years. Because of the unique distribution of the tick species Dermacentor reticulatus in Poland, comprising two expanding populations, Eastern and Western that are separated by a Dermacentor-free zone, it is important to conduct studies on the process of tick expansion and emergence of canine babesiosis. The main aim of the current study was to monitor the expansion of D. reticulatus populations from spring 2016 to autumn 2018 to determine (1) the actual geographical range of this tick species, and (2) and the seasonal/annual shift in range limits and changes in distance between Western and Eastern populations of ticks (the size of the non-endemic area).

Methods

Ticks were collected in spring/autumn during a 3-year study. From each season and year at least three pairs of sites from the Western and Eastern populations were selected. Then the mean distance between paired sites was calculated for each season and year. We collected and analyzed data from veterinary clinics on the number of canine babesiosis cases treated in the clinic during a whole year (2018).

Results

Accordingly, further expansion of the two D. reticulatus populations was recorded, mainly along river basins. Marked colonization of the gap zone was observed, with a mean annual shift in the range of 2.5–10 km and a steadily decreasing distance between the two tick populations. The occurrence of babesiosis in different regions revealed low numbers of cases in Western Poland (19 cases/year) and the gap area (only 7 cases/year) and high incidence (up to 250 cases/1000 dogs) and fatality (total 3.65%) in Central and Eastern Poland. Strong associations were found geographically between tick and babesiosis occurrence and temporally in the seasonal patterns of occurrence of ticks and outbreaks of babesiosis.

Conclusions

We documented the shift in range limits and continued process of colonization of the gap zone accompanied by the emergence of canine babesiosis in the Eastern expansion zone. Updated maps of the distribution of ticks and occurrence of babesiosis in different regions of Poland have allowed us to predict of the emergence of pathogens vectored by D. reticulatus.

Graphic Abstract

Incidence (per 1000 dogs) of canine babesiosis in veterinary clinics by current range of D. reticulatus

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13071-021-04758-7.

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Most cited references 51

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Changes in the geographical distribution and abundance of the tick Ixodes ricinus during the past 30 years in Sweden

Thomas GT Jaenson, David GE Jaenson, Lars Eisen … (2012)

Background Ixodes ricinus is the main vector in Europe of human-pathogenic Lyme borreliosis (LB) spirochaetes, the tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) and other pathogens of humans and domesticated mammals. The results of a previous 1994 questionnaire, directed at people living in Central and North Sweden (Svealand and Norrland) and aiming to gather information about tick exposure for humans and domestic animals, suggested that Ixodes ricinus ticks had become more widespread in Central Sweden and the southern part of North Sweden from the early 1980s to the early 1990s. To investigate whether the expansion of the tick's northern geographical range and the increasing abundance of ticks in Sweden were still occurring, in 2009 we performed a follow-up survey 16 years after the initial study. Methods A questionnaire similar to the one used in the 1994 study was published in Swedish magazines aimed at dog owners, home owners, and hunters. The questionnaire was published together with a popular science article about the tick's biology and role as a pathogen vector in Sweden. The magazines were selected to get information from people familiar with ticks and who spend time in areas where ticks might be present. Results Analyses of data from both surveys revealed that during the near 30-year period from the early 1980s to 2008, I. ricinus has expanded its distribution range northwards. In the early 1990s ticks were found in new areas along the northern coastline of the Baltic Sea, while in the 2009 study, ticks were reported for the first time from many locations in North Sweden. This included locations as far north as 66°N and places in the interior part of North Sweden. During this 16-year period the tick's range in Sweden was estimated to have increased by 9.9%. Most of the range expansion occurred in North Sweden (north of 60°N) where the tick's coverage area doubled from 12.5% in the early 1990s to 26.8% in 2008. Moreover, according to the respondents, the abundance of ticks had increased markedly in LB- and TBE-endemic areas in South (Götaland) and Central Sweden. Conclusions The results suggest that I. ricinus has expanded its range in North Sweden and has become distinctly more abundant in Central and South Sweden during the last three decades. However, in the northern mountain region I. ricinus is still absent. The increased abundance of the tick can be explained by two main factors: First, the high availability of large numbers of important tick maintenance hosts, i.e., cervids, particularly roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) during the last three decades. Second, a warmer climate with milder winters and a prolonged growing season that permits greater survival and proliferation over a larger geographical area of both the tick itself and deer. High reproductive potential of roe deer, high tick infestation rate and the tendency of roe deer to disperse great distances may explain the range expansion of I. ricinus and particularly the appearance of new TBEV foci far away from old TBEV-endemic localities. The geographical presence of LB in Sweden corresponds to the distribution of I. ricinus. Thus, LB is now an emerging disease risk in many parts of North Sweden. Unless countermeasures are undertaken to keep the deer populations, particularly C. capreolus and Dama dama, at the relatively low levels that prevailed before the late 1970s - especially in and around urban areas where human population density is high - by e.g. reduced hunting of red fox (Vulpes vulpes) and lynx (Lynx lynx), the incidences of human LB and TBE are expected to continue to be high or even to increase in Sweden in coming decades.

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Dermacentor reticulatus: a vector on the rise

Gábor Földvári, Pavel Široký, Sándor Szekeres … (2016)

Dermacentor reticulatus is a hard tick species with extraordinary biological features. It has a high reproduction rate, a rapid developmental cycle, and is also able to overcome years of unfavourable conditions. Dermacentor reticulatus can survive under water for several months and is cold-hardy even compared to other tick species. It has a wide host range: over 60 different wild and domesticated hosts are known for the three active developmental stages. Its high adaptiveness gives an edge to this tick species as shown by new data on the emergence and establishment of D. reticulatus populations throughout Europe. The tick has been the research focus of a growing number of scientists, physicians and veterinarians. Within the Web of Science database, more than a fifth of the over 700 items published on this species between 1897 and 2015 appeared in the last three years (2013–2015). Here we attempt to synthesize current knowledge on the systematics, ecology, geographical distribution and recent spread of the species and to highlight the great spectrum of possible veterinary and public health threats it poses. Canine babesiosis caused by Babesia canis is a severe leading canine vector-borne disease in many endemic areas. Although less frequently than Ixodes ricinus, D. reticulatus adults bite humans and transmit several Rickettsia spp., Omsk haemorrhagic fever virus or Tick-borne encephalitis virus. We have not solely collected and reviewed the latest and fundamental scientific papers available in primary databases but also widened our scope to books, theses, conference papers and specialists colleagues’ experience where needed. Besides the dominant literature available in English, we also tried to access scientific literature in German, Russian and eastern European languages as well. We hope to inspire future research projects that are necessary to understand the basic life-cycle and ecology of this vector in order to understand and prevent disease threats. We conclude that although great strides have been made in our knowledge of the eco-epidemiology of this species, several gaps still need to be filled with basic research, targeting possible reservoir and vector roles and the key factors resulting in the observed geographical spread of D. reticulatus. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13071-016-1599-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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Geographical distribution of Dermacentor marginatus and Dermacentor reticulatus in Europe.

Franz Rubel, Katharina Brugger, Martin Pfeffer … (2016)

The goal of this paper is to present up-to-date maps depicting the geographical distribution of Dermacentor species in Europe based on georeferenced sampling sites. Therefore, a dataset was compiled, resulting in 1286 D. marginatus (Sulzer, 1776) and 1209 D. reticulatus (Fabricius, 1794) locations. Special emphasis is given to the region of the European Alps depicting a presumable climate barrier of the mountains and to overlaps in the distribution of both species as well as on the situation in eastern European countries. For the latter newly described Dermacentor findings comprise 59 locations in Romania and 62 locations in Ukraine. The geographical distributions of both species in Europe range from Portugal to Ukraine (and continue to the east of Kazakhstan). Although it is well known that D. marginatus is adapted to a warmer and drier climate at more southern latitudes and D. reticulatus to a moderately moist climate at more northern latitudes, the distribution limits of both species were not well known. Here, the northern and southern distribution limits for both species in Europe, as determined from the georeferenced database, were specified for D. marginatus by the belt of 33-51° N latitude and for D. reticulatus by the belt of 41-57° N latitude. Thus, overlapping species distributions were found between 41° N and 51° N.

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Author and article information

Contributors

Dorota Dwużnik-Szarek: dorota.dwuznik@biol.uw.edu.pl

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): Parasit Vectors

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): Parasit Vectors

Title: Parasites & Vectors

Publisher: BioMed Central (London )

ISSN (Electronic): 1756-3305

Publication date (Electronic): 20 May 2021

Publication date PMC-release: 20 May 2021

Publication date Collection: 2021

Volume: 14

Electronic Location Identifier: 267

Affiliations

[1 ]GRID grid.12847.38, ISNI 0000 0004 1937 1290, Department of Eco-Epidemiology of Parasitic Diseases, Institute of Developmental Biology and Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Biology, , University of Warsaw, ; Miecznikowa 1, 02-096 Warsaw, Poland

[2 ]GRID grid.13276.31, ISNI 0000 0001 1955 7966, Department of Pathology and Veterinary Diagnostics, , Warsaw University of Life Sciences- SGGW, ; 159c Nowoursynowska Street, 02-766 Warsaw, Poland

[3 ]GRID grid.12847.38, ISNI 0000 0004 1937 1290, Department of Parasitology, Institute of Functional Biology and Ecology, Faculty of Biology, , University of Warsaw, ; Warsaw, Poland

[4 ]GRID grid.410688.3, ISNI 0000 0001 2157 4669, Department of Forest Phytopathology, Faculty of Forestry, , Poznań University of Life Sciences, ; Poznań, Poland

[5 ]GRID grid.8505.8, ISNI 0000 0001 1010 5103, Department of Microbial Ecology and Environmental Protection, Institute of Genetics and Microbiology, , University of Wroclaw, ; 63/77 Przybyszewskiego Street, 51-148 Wrocław, Poland

Article

Publisher ID: 4758

DOI: 10.1186/s13071-021-04758-7

PMC ID: 8138931

PubMed ID: 34016152

SO-VID: b953d3b6-4331-4208-8f8c-0fc0b0e55b6d

License:

Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver ( http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.

History

Date received : 18 December 2020

Date accepted : 29 April 2021

Funding

Funded by: FundRef http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100004281, Narodowe Centrum Nauki;

Custom metadata

ScienceOpen disciplines: Parasitology

Keywords: dermacentor reticulatus,abundance,seasonality,range,babesia canis,incidence,poland

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ScienceOpen disciplines: Parasitology

Keywords: dermacentor reticulatus, abundance, seasonality, range, babesia canis, incidence, poland

Monitoring the expansion of Dermacentor reticulatus and occurrence of canine babesiosis in Poland in 2016–2018

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Abstract

Background

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Graphic Abstract

Supplementary Information

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Ticks and tick-borne pathogens

Most cited references 51

Changes in the geographical distribution and abundance of the tick Ixodes ricinus during the past 30 years in Sweden

Dermacentor reticulatus: a vector on the rise

Geographical distribution of Dermacentor marginatus and Dermacentor reticulatus in Europe.

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