Experimental and Applied Acarology (1999) 23, 717-729

J.S. Gray, F. Kirstein, J.N. Robertson, J. Stein and O. Kahl (1999)
Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato in Ixodes ricinus ticks and rodents in a recreational park in south-western Ireland
Experimental and Applied Acarology 23 (9), 717-729
Abstract: Ixodes ricinus ticks infected with Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato were numerous on the edges of paths and roads in a recreational park in south-western Ireland. The abundance of ticks at different sites was related to the presence of deer, but a negative relationship was shown between tick abundance and tick infection rates. This is thought to be due to the deposition of large numbers of uninfected ticks by deer, which are apparently not good reservoir hosts of B. burgdorferi s.l. Blood meal analysis only detected deer DNA in uninfected nymphs. Reservoir competent rodents, Apodemus sylvaticus and Clethrionomys glareolus, were abundant at all sites and a high proportion of captured specimens were infested with larval ticks. However, very few rodents were infected with B. burgdorferi s.l. and none of the unfed infected nymphs analysed for the identity of their larval blood meal had fed on rodents. The spirochaetes detected in I. ricinus in the study area may be poorly adapted to rodents or are not transmitted readily because of the absence of nymphal infestation. The majority of spirochaetes in these ticks were apparently acquired from non-rodent hosts, such as birds.
(The abstract is excluded from the Creative Commons licence and has been copied with permission by the publisher.)
Link to article at publishers website
Database assignments for author(s): Jeremy S. Gray

Research topic(s) for pests/diseases/weeds:
environment - cropping system/rotation

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Pest and/or beneficial records:

Beneficial	Pest/Disease/Weed	Crop/Product	Country	Quarant.
	Ixodes ricinus		Ireland
	Apodemus sylvaticus		Ireland
	Myodes glareolus		Ireland