Effect of forest clearing on the abundance of Ixodes ricinus ticks

georgia · medicine forum Guru Joined: 06 May 2005 Posts: 505

Med Vet Entomol. 2006 Jun;20(2):166-72.

Effect of forest clearing on the abundance of Ixodes ricinus ticks
and the prevalence of Borrelia burgdorferi s.l.

Hubalek Z, Halouzka J, Juricova Z, Sikutova S, Rudolf I.

Institute of Vertebrate Biology, Academy of Sciences, Brno, Czech
Republic.

Questing Ixodes ricinus L. (Acari: Ixodidae) ticks were collected
on
a forest trail that had been completely cleared of shrubs and ground
vegetation in winter 2002 and on a nearby control uncleared forest
transect in South Moravia (Czech Republic). Samples were collected each

May in 2003, 2004 and 2005. Nymphal ticks were 3.4 times, 1.9 times and

1.2 times less frequent on cleared forest than on uncleared forest
trails in the three respective years, whereas adult tick abundance was
27.2 times, 4.0 times and 2.2 times lower, respectively. The ticks were

examined for borreliae by dark-field microscopy: prevalence of nymphal
ticks infected with Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato (12.6% to 20.0%)
did
not differ significantly between the cleared and uncleared trail during

the 3 years. In conclusion, the habitat modification appeared to result

in a decreased abundance of I. ricinus as well as a reduced frequency
of
infected ticks (and thus indirectly a lower potential risk of Lyme
borreliosis), which lasted, however, for only 2 years. Eight cultures
of
borreliae isolated from the ticks were all identified as the
'ornithophilic' genomic species Borrelia garinii, possibly indicating a

greater role of forest birds than that of forest rodents as the hosts
of
immature I. ricinus in the tick (and borrelial) colonization of the
cleared part of the forest.

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