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      Host–parasite interactions of rodent hosts and ectoparasite communities from different habitats in Germany

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          Abstract

          Background

          Small mammals are important maintenance hosts of ectoparasites as well as reservoir hosts for many arthropod-borne pathogens. In Germany, only a few studies have investigated ectoparasite communities on small mammals in their natural habitats. The aim of this study was to assess the species diversity and parameters influencing the mean intensity and prevalence of macroscopically visible ectoparasites, such as fleas, predatory mites and ticks.

          Methods

          A total of 779 small mammals and 3383 ticks were available from earlier investigations for the data analysis of the current study from three differently structured study sites. In addition, fleas and predatory mites were collected from the captured rodents and taxonomically identified. Regression analyses were conducted on the group (ticks/mites/fleas) and species levels using hurdle models for the abundance of ectoparasite groups and a negative binomial model for the abundance of species.

          Results

          Nearly 90% of the small mammals analyzed were infested with ectoparasites, with an average of 7.3 specimens per host. Hosts were infested with up to six species of ectoparasites simultaneously. In total, 12 flea, 11 mite and three tick species were detected. Ticks were more prevalent than fleas or mites, with > 80% of the hosts in urban and forest areas hosting ticks and around 60% of hosts presenting fleas, and only 20–40% of hosts presenting mites. Polyparasitism had a statistically significant influence on the prevalence of the investigated tick, mite and flea species, with odds ratios of > 1.0. Trapping location, season and host characteristics had significant influences on some—but not all—of the investigated species.

          Conclusions

          The diversity of flea species was unexpectedly high and higher than that reported in comparable studies, which can be explained by the differently structured habitats and regions examined in this study. Polyparasitism was a key influencing factor and had a positive effect on the prevalence and/or abundance of the predominant tick, flea and mite species occurring on small mammals. Season, trapping location, host species and sex of the host species also had an influence on the prevalence and mean intensity of certain, but not all, ectoparasite species.

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          Most cited references53

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          glmmTMB Balances Speed and Flexibility Among Packages for Zero-inflated Generalized Linear Mixed Modeling

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            Parasitology meets ecology on its own terms: Margolis et al. revisited.

            We consider 27 population and community terms used frequently by parasitologists when describing the ecology of parasites. We provide suggestions for various terms in an attempt to foster consistent use and to make terms used in parasite ecology easier to interpret for those who study free-living organisms. We suggest strongly that authors, whether they agree or disagree with us, provide complete and unambiguous definitions for all parameters of their studies.
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              Ixodes ricinus and Its Transmitted Pathogens in Urban and Peri-Urban Areas in Europe: New Hazards and Relevance for Public Health

              Tick-borne diseases represent major public and animal health issues worldwide. Ixodes ricinus, primarily associated with deciduous and mixed forests, is the principal vector of causative agents of viral, bacterial, and protozoan zoonotic diseases in Europe. Recently, abundant tick populations have been observed in European urban green areas, which are of public health relevance due to the exposure of humans and domesticated animals to potentially infected ticks. In urban habitats, small and medium-sized mammals, birds, companion animals (dogs and cats), and larger mammals (roe deer and wild boar) play a role in maintenance of tick populations and as reservoirs of tick-borne pathogens. Presence of ticks infected with tick-borne encephalitis virus and high prevalence of ticks infected with Borrelia burgdorferi s.l., causing Lyme borreliosis, have been reported from urbanized areas in Europe. Emerging pathogens, including bacteria of the order Rickettsiales (Anaplasma phagocytophilum, “Candidatus Neoehrlichia mikurensis,” Rickettsia helvetica, and R. monacensis), Borrelia miyamotoi, and protozoans (Babesia divergens, B. venatorum, and B. microti) have also been detected in urban tick populations. Understanding the ecology of ticks and their associations with hosts in a European urbanized environment is crucial to quantify parameters necessary for risk pre-assessment and identification of public health strategies for control and prevention of tick-borne diseases.
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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Anna.Obiegala@vetmed.uni-leipzig.de
                Leonie.Arnold@fli.de
                Pfeffer@vetmed.uni-leipzig.de
                daniel1kiefer1@gmail.com
                Carola.Sauter-Louis@fli.de
                Cornelia.Silaghi@fli.de
                Journal
                Parasit Vectors
                Parasit Vectors
                Parasites & Vectors
                BioMed Central (London )
                1756-3305
                17 February 2021
                17 February 2021
                2021
                : 14
                : 112
                Affiliations
                [1 ]GRID grid.9647.c, ISNI 0000 0004 7669 9786, Institute of Animal Hygiene and Veterinary Public Health, , University of Leipzig, ; Leipzig, Germany
                [2 ]GRID grid.5252.0, ISNI 0000 0004 1936 973X, Comparative Tropical Medicine and Parasitology, , Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, ; Munich, Germany
                [3 ]GRID grid.417834.d, Institute of Epidemiology, Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut, , Federal Research Institute for Animal Health, ; Greifswald, Riems Germany
                [4 ]GRID grid.452282.b, ISNI 0000 0001 1013 3702, Bavarian State Collection of Zoology, ; Munich, Germany
                [5 ]GRID grid.417834.d, Institute of Infectology, Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut, , Federal Research Institute for Animal Health, ; Greifswald, Riems Germany
                Article
                4615
                10.1186/s13071-021-04615-7
                7890891
                33596984
                f5ddfefd-0e0f-4d8b-8ca0-295b69cc387d
                © The Author(s) 2021

                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
                : 5 November 2020
                : 28 January 2021
                Funding
                Funded by: FundRef http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000780, European Commission;
                Award ID: FP7-261504
                Award Recipient :
                Funded by: FundRef http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100010809, Umweltbundesamt;
                Award ID: FKZ 371148
                Award Recipient :
                Categories
                Research
                Custom metadata
                © The Author(s) 2021

                Parasitology
                host–parasite interaction,ectoparasites,ticks,rodents,fleas,mites,myodes glareolus,apodemus spp.,ixodes ricinus

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