Does bird life-history influence the prevalence of ticks? A citizen science study in North East Spain
Metadatos
Mostrar el registro completo del ítemEditorial
Elsevier
Materia
Tick prevalence Host-pathogen interactions Parasite incidence
Fecha
2024-04-03Referencia bibliográfica
J. Veiga et al. One Health 18 (2024) 100718. [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.onehlt.2024.100718]
Patrocinador
MCIN through the European Regional Development Fund Sustainability for Mediterranean Hotspots in Andalusia (SUMHAL), [LIFEWATCH-2019-09-CSIC-4, POPE 2014–2020]; Project PLEC2021–007968 (NEXTHREAT); Project SUMHAL; Margarita Salas program; Juan de la Cierva program (Ref. FJC2021–048057-I); European Union NextGenerationEU/ PRTRResumen
After mosquitoes, ticks are among the most important vector of pathogens of concern for animal and public
health, but unless mosquitoes ticks remain attached to their hosts for long time periods providing an opportunity
to analyse their role in the dispersal and dynamics of different zoonotic pathogens. Given their interest in public
health it is important to understand which factors affect their incidence in different hosts and to stablish effective
surveillance programs to determine the risk of transmission and spill-over of zoonotic pathogens. Taking benefit
of a large network of volunteer ornithologists, we analysed the life-history traits associated to the presence of
ticks using information of 620,609 individuals of 231 avian species. Bird phylogeny, locality and year explained a
large amount of variance in tick prevalence. Non-colonial species non breeding in grasslands and non-spending
the non-breeding season as gregarious groups or isolated individuals (e.g. thrushes, quails and finches) had the
higher prevalence of ticks and appear as good candidates for zoonosis surveillance programs based on the analyses
of ticks collected from wild birds. Ringers underestimated tick prevalence but can be considered as an
important source of information of ticks for public and animal health surveillance programs if properly trained
for the detection and collection of the different tick development phases.