Tick-Borne Pathogens in Ixodid Ticks from Poyang Lake Region, Southeastern China

Ticks are the vectors of various pathogens, threatening human health and animal production across the globe. Here, for the first time we detected Ricketssia spp., Borrelia spp. and protozoan in ticks from Poyang Lake region in Jiangxi Province of eastern China. In 3 habitat categories and on 12 host species, 311 ticks from 11 species were collected. Haemaphysalis longicornis was the predominant species, accounting for 55.63%, followed by Rhipicephalus microplus, Haemaphysalis flava and Ixodes granulatus. Of the collected ticks, 7.07% were positive for tick-borne pathogens, and H. longicornis and H. flava were found to be co-infected with Ricketssia spp. and protozoan. H. flava was the most detected positive for tick-borne pathogens, whereas H. longicornis had the lowest infection rate, and the difference in infection rates between tick species was significant (χ²=61.24, P < 0.001). Furthermore, adult ticks demonstrated remarkably greater infection rate than immature ticks (χ²=10.12, P=0.018), meanwhile ticks on Erinaceidae showed significantly higher positivity than ticks collected on other host species (χ²=108.44, P < 0.001). Genetic fragment sequencing and analyses showed at least 4 pathogen species presence in ticks, namely Borrelia yangtzensis, Rickettsia slovaca or Rickettsia raoultii related genospecies, Babesia vogeli and Hepatozoon canis or Hepatozoon felis related genospecies. The finding indicates that the abundant ticks can carry diverse pathogens in Poyang Lake region, and pathogen infection is highly related to species, vertebrate hosts and life stages of ticks.

[Investigation on human Toxoplasma gondii infections in Nanchang City in 2014].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the endemic situation of human Toxoplasma gondii infection in Nanchang City in 2014 and analyze the influencing factors, so as to provide the evidence for control measures. METHODS: The high-risk population of T. gondii infection in Nanchang City was collected as an experiment group, and a control group was settled with the ratio of 1∶1. The serum tests and epidemiology surveys were conducted simultaneously, and the influencing factors were analyzed. RESULTS: The total positive rate of human T. gondii was 5.17% (124/2 400) among the whole population in Nanchang City in 2014. The positive rate was 7.50% (90/1 200) in the experiment group and 2.18% (34/1 200) in the control group, and the difference was significant (χ2 =26.668, P＜0.05). The results of univariate analysis indicated that different dietary habits and health habits were closely related to the infection of T. gondii (χ2 =16.522, 64.954, both P＜0.05). The result of Logistic analysis showed that the risk factors of T. gondii infection were occupation, educational levels, raising cats, contacting animals or raw meat, and eating raw or uncooked beef. CONCLUSIONS: The high risk population of T. gondii infection is the key population of the toxoplasmosis control. Unhealthy dietary and living habits are key influencing factors of toxoplasmosis, and the related health education and surveillance work should be strengthened.