Science abhors a surveillance vacuum: Detection of ticks and tick-borne pathogens in southern New Mexico through passive surveillance.

Autor: Harman PR; Department of Biology, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, New Mexico, United States of America., Mendell NL; Department of Pathology, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas, United States of America., Harman MM; Department of Biology, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, New Mexico, United States of America., Draney PA; Department of Biology, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, New Mexico, United States of America., Boyle AT; Department of Fish, Wildlife and Conservation Ecology, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, New Mexico, United States of America., Gompper ME; Department of Fish, Wildlife and Conservation Ecology, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, New Mexico, United States of America., Orr TJ; Department of Biology, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, New Mexico, United States of America., Bouyer DH; Department of Pathology, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas, United States of America., Teel PD; Department of Entomology, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, United States of America., Hanley KA; Department of Biology, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, New Mexico, United States of America.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: PloS one [PLoS One] 2024 Jan 31; Vol. 19 (1), pp. e0292573. Date of Electronic Publication: 2024 Jan 31 (Print Publication: 2024).
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0292573
Abstrakt: Robust tick surveillance enhances diagnosis and prevention of tick-borne pathogens, yet surveillance efforts in the United States are highly uneven, resulting in large surveillance vacuums, one of which spans the state of New Mexico. As part of a larger effort to fill this vacuum, we conducted both active and passive tick sampling in New Mexico, focusing on the southern portion of the state. We conducted active tick sampling using dragging and CO₂ trapping at 45 sites across Hidalgo, Doña Ana, Otero, and Eddy counties between June 2021 to May 2022. Sampling occurred intermittently, with at least one sampling event each month from June to October 2021, pausing in winter and resuming in March through May 2022. We also conducted opportunistic, passive tick sampling in 2021 and 2022 from animals harvested by hunters or captured or collected by researchers and animals housed in animal hospitals, shelters, and farms. All pools of ticks were screened for Rickettsia rickettsii, Rickettsia parkeri, Rickettsia amblyommatis, Ehrlichia ewingii, and Ehrlichia chaffeensis. Active sampling yielded no ticks. Passive sampling yielded 497 ticks comprising Carios kelleyi from pallid bats, Rhipicephalus sanguineus from dogs, mule deer, and Rocky Mountain elk, Otobius megnini from dogs, cats, horses, and Coues deer, Dermacentor parumapertus from dogs and black-tailed jackrabbits, Dermacentor albipictus from domesticated cats, mule deer and Rocky Mountain elk, and Dermacentor spp. from American black bear, Rocky Mountain elk, and mule deer. One pool of D. parumapterus from a black-tailed jackrabbit in Luna County tested positive for R. parkeri, an agent of spotted fever rickettsiosis. Additionally, a spotted fever group Rickettsia was detected in 6 of 7 C. kelleyi pools. Two ticks showed morphological abnormalities; however, these samples did not test positive for any of the target pathogens, and the cause of the abnormalities is unknown. Passive surveillance yielded five identified species of ticks from three domestic and six wild mammal species. Our findings update tick distributions and inform the public, medical, and veterinary communities of the potential tick-borne pathogens present in southern New Mexico.
Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
(Copyright: © 2024 Harman et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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