Mapping ticks and tick-borne pathogens in China
Top Cited Papers
Open Access
- 17 February 2021
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Springer Science and Business Media LLC in Nature Communications
- Vol. 12 (1), 1-13
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-21375-1
Abstract
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.Keywords
Funding Information
- Ministry of Science and Technology of the People’s Republic of China (2018ZX10101003, 2017ZX10303401, 2018ZX10201001)
- National Natural Science Foundation of China (81825019)
- Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (R01 AI139761)
- Ministry of Science and Technology of the People’s Republic of China
- Ministry of Science and Technology of the People’s Republic of China
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