The Roles of Contrasting Host Types on the Environmental Abundance of Anaplasma phagocytophilum, an Emerging Zoonotic Pathogen

Ecology and Evolution

卷:16

RESEARCH ARTICLE

William McLellan¹  Sara Gandy¹  Jaboury Ghazoul²  Fanny Olsthoorn^1,2  Livia May²  Jude Eze³  Mara Rocchi⁴  Hein Sprong⁵  Lucy Gilbert¹ 

[1] School of Veterinary Medicine and Biosciences, Scottish Rural College, Inverness, UK

[2] Moredun Research Institute, Edinburgh, UK

[3] Ecosystem Management, Institute of Terrestrial Ecosystems, Department of Environmental Systems Science, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland

[4] National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, Bilthoven, the Netherlands

[5] School of Biodiversity, One Health and Veterinary Medicine, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK

关键词: birds;    deer;    ;    rodents;    sheep;    ticks;   

DOI  :  10.1002/ece3.74308

 received in 2026-01-19, accepted in 2026-08-26,  发布年份 2026

来源: Wiley

【 摘 要 】

ABSTRACTFundamental knowledge of the role of hosts in shaping vector‐borne pathogen abundance is critical to understanding the ecology of these disease systems; yet the roles can be challenging to tease apart, especially for pathogens vectored by generalist feeders with multiple hosts. In this study, we aimed to quantify the relative contributions of hypothesised pathogen transmission hosts (deer and sheep) and non‐transmission hosts (birds and rodents) to the environmental abundance of Anaplasma phagocytophilum (ecotypes I and II) in Ixodes ricinus ticks. Anaplasma phagocytophilum is a zoonotic pathogen, vectored by I. ricinus, that causes tick‐borne fever in livestock and anaplasmosis in humans. We collected data on A. phagocytophilum prevalence and environmental hazard (density of infected ticks at 40 sites), sheep presence (at 40 sites) and relative abundance indices of deer (at 40 sites) rodents (at 20 sites) and birds (at 10 sites) in northwest Scotland between 2018 and 2020. As predicted, deer were positively associated with A. phagocytophilum prevalence and hazard, indicating their potential role as pathogen transmission hosts. In contrast, bird abundance was negatively associated with A. phagocytophilum prevalence, indicating that higher bird densities may divert more ticks away from feeding on transmission hosts, thus reducing A. phagocytophilum prevalence. This highlights the importance of including non‐transmission hosts when examining environmental disease risk factors. Sheep presence and rodent abundance index did not significantly influence A. phagocytophilum prevalence and hazard at our sites. Our findings could have implications for conservation and disease mitigation as land management practices that reduce deer density and promote bird abundance could reduce A. phagocytophilum prevalence and hazard.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2026 The Author(s). Ecology and Evolution published by British Ecological Society and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

【 图 表 】

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