Mapping ticks and tick-borne pathogens in China

Nature Communications

Song Liang¹  Ming-jin Liu¹  Yang Yang¹  Shi-Xia Zhou²  Zheng-Wei Fan²  Wen-Hui Zhang²  Hao Li²  Wei Liu²  Yang Ji²  Li-Qun Fang²  Yi-Xing Wang²  Xin-Lou Li²  Guo-Ping Zhao³ 

[1] College of Public Health and Health Professions and Emerging Pathogens Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA;State Key Laboratory of Pathogen and Biosecurity, Beijing Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology, Beijing, P.R. China;State Key Laboratory of Pathogen and Biosecurity, Beijing Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology, Beijing, P.R. China;Logistics College of Chinese People’s Armed Police Forces, Tianjin, P.R. China;

DOI  :  10.1038/s41467-021-21375-1

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

Understanding ecological niches of major tick species and prevalent tick-borne pathogens is crucial for efficient surveillance and control of tick-borne diseases. Here we provide an up-to-date review on the spatial distributions of ticks and tick-borne pathogens in China. We map at the county level 124 tick species, 103 tick-borne agents, and human cases infected with 29 species (subspecies) of tick-borne pathogens that were reported in China during 1950−2018. Haemaphysalis longicornis is found to harbor the highest variety of tick-borne agents, followed by Ixodes persulcatus, Dermacentor nutalli and Rhipicephalus microplus. Using a machine learning algorithm, we assess ecoclimatic and socioenvironmental drivers for the distributions of 19 predominant vector ticks and two tick-borne pathogens associated with the highest disease burden. The model-predicted suitable habitats for the 19 tick species are 14‒476% larger in size than the geographic areas where these species were detected, indicating severe under-detection. Tick species harboring pathogens of imminent threats to public health should be prioritized for more active field surveillance.

【 授权许可】

CC BY