Ectoparasite loads in sympatric urban populations of the northern white-breasted and the European hedgehog.

Sylwia Dziemian,Bożena Sikora,Barbara Piłacińska,Jerzy Michalik,Rafał Zwolak

doi:10.1007/s00436-015-4427-x

Sylwia Dziemian, Bożena Sikora + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-015-4427-x

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Journal: Parasitology Research	Publication Date: Mar 29, 2015
Citations: 57	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań

Abstract

We investigated abundance and prevalence of ticks and fleas infesting urban populations of two species of hedgehogs: the northern white-breasted hedgehog (Erinaceus roumanicus) and the European hedgehog (Erinaceus europaeus). The hedgehogs were captured in the city of Poznań (western Poland) over the period of 4 years. Both species of hedgehogs were infested with the castor bean tick (Ixodes ricinus), the hedgehog tick (Ixodes hexagonus), and the hedgehog flea (Archeopsylla erinacei). The northern white-breasted hedgehog had higher loads of I. ricinus and A. erinacei than the European hedgehog. The abundance and prevalence of I. hexagonus were similar on both species of hosts. Co-infestation with the two species of ticks was more frequent on the northern white-breasted hedgehog than on the European hedgehog. Therefore, these two closely related species of hedgehogs differ in their importance as hosts of arthropod vectors of pathogens in urban areas and might play a different role in the dynamics of zoonotic diseases.

Highlights

Ticks (Acari) and fleas (Siphonaptera) are among the most important hematophagous ectoparasites of terrestrialS
The abundance of I. ricinus was higher in E. roumanicus than in E. europaeus and differed among seasons, with seasonality affected by host sex and tick stage
The abundance of I. ricinus was high in spring and declined throughout summer and fall, but this pattern was more pronounced in males (Fig. 1a)

Summary

Introduction

Ticks (Acari) and fleas (Siphonaptera) are among the most important hematophagous ectoparasites of terrestrial. Hedgehogs are known to be very heavily infested with ticks and fleas (Gaglio et al 2010; Földvári et al 2011) These mammals play an important role in the maintenance of zoonotic agents within urban areas (Dautel and Kahl 1999; Pfäffle et al 2014). The research gaps include potential differences in ectoparasite infestation patterns between the two hedgehog species Such studies are needed to evaluate the role of these mammals in the circulation of zoonotic diseases. To our knowledge, this is the first study of ectoparasites of living hedgehogs in sympatric populations of E. roumanicus and E. europaeus

Materials and methods

Results

Discussion