Larval Chigger Mites Collected from Small Mammals in 3 Provinces, Korea.
- Author:
In Yong LEE
1
;
Hyeon Je SONG
;
Yeon Joo CHOI
;
Sun Hye SHIN
;
Min Kyung CHOI
;
So Hyun KWON
;
E Hyun SHIN
;
Chan PARK
;
Heung Chul KIM
;
Terry A KLEIN
;
Kyung Hee PARK
;
Won Jong JANG
Author Information
1. Department of Environmental Medical Biology, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul 120-752, Korea.
- Publication Type:Brief Communication ; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
- Keywords:
Apodemus agrarius;
Leptotrombidium pallidum;
Leptotrombidium scutellare;
chigger mite;
chigger index
- MeSH:
Animals;
Arachnid Vectors;
Larva/*microbiology;
Orientia tsutsugamushi/*isolation & purification;
Republic of Korea;
Rodentia;
Scrub Typhus/*microbiology;
Trombiculidae/*classification/*microbiology
- From:The Korean Journal of Parasitology
2014;52(2):225-229
- CountryRepublic of Korea
- Language:English
-
Abstract:
A total of 9,281 larval chigger mites were collected from small mammals captured at Hwaseong-gun, Gyeonggi-do (Province) (2,754 mites from 30 small mammals), Asan city, Chungcheongnam-do (3,358 mites from 48 mammals), and Jangseong-gun, Jeollanam-do (3,169 for 62 mammals) from April-November 2009 in the Republic of Korea (= Korea) and were identified to species. Leptotrombidium pallidum was the predominant species in Hwaseong (95.8%) and Asan (61.2%), while Leptotrombidium scutellare was the predominant species collected from Jangseong (80.1%). Overall, larval chigger mite indices decreased from April (27.3) to June (4.9), then increased in September (95.2) and to a high level in November (169.3). These data suggest that L. pallidum and L. scutellare are the primary vectors of scrub typhus throughout their range in Korea. While other species of larval chigger mites were also collected with some implications in the transmission of Orientia tsutsugamushi, they only accounted for 11.2% of all larval chigger mites collected from small mammals.
