Chigger mites is a group of arthropods and some of them are vectors of scrub typhus. As a common synanthropic rodent species, the Brown rat (Rattus norvegicus) often harbors lots of ectoparasites including chigger mites. According to some “data mining” strategies, the present study took the advantage of the abundant original data from a long-term field ecological investigation between 2001 and 2015 to make a detailed analysis of chigger mites on R. norvegicus in Yunnan Province, Southwest of China. From 18 of 33 investigated counties, only 1414 chigger mites were collected from 1113 Brown rats with relatively low infestations. The 1414 individual chigger mites were identified as comprising 61 species, 11 genera and 2 subfamilies of the family Trombiculidae with a high species diversity (S=61, H’=3.13). Of 61 mite species, there were four main species, Walchia ewingi, Ascoschoengastia indica, W. koi and A. rattinorvegici, which accounted for 44.41% of the total mites. All the chigger mites were of aggregated distribution among different individuals of R. norvegicus. The Brown rats in the outdoor habitats harbored much more individuals and species of chigger mites with a higher mean abundance (MA=1.46) and mean intensity (MI=12.53) than in the indoor habitats (P<0.05). The overall infestation of the rats was significantly higher in the mountainous landscapes than in the flatland landscapes (P<0.001). The species similarity (Css) of the mites on the male and female rats reached 64.44% with sex biased infestations. The male rats harbored more species and individuals of the mites than the female rats. The adult rats harbored more species and individuals of the mites than the juvenile rats. The species abundance distribution of the mites was successfully fitted by Preston’s lognormal model with S ^ (R)=15e–[0.31(R–1)]2 (α=0.31, R2=0.95). On the basis of fitting the theoretical curve by Preston’s model, the total mite species on R. norvegicus was estimated to be 86 species, and 25 rare mite species were missed in the sampling field investigation. The curve tendency of the species-plot relationship indicates that R. norvegicus have a great potential to harbor many species of chigger mites, and more species of the mites would be collected if more rats are sampled.

The larvae of Echinococcus (hydatidcyst) can parasitize humans and animals, causing a serious zoonotic disease-echinococcosis. The life history of Echinococcus is complicated, and as the disease progresses slowly after infection, early diagnosis is difficult to establish. Due to the limitations of imaging and immunological diagnosis in this respect, domestic and foreign scholars have established a variety of molecular detection techniques for the pathogen Echinococcus over recent years, mainly including nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR), multiplex PCR, real-time quantitative PCR, and nucleic acid isothermal amplification technology. In this article, the research progress of molecular detection technology for Echinococcus infection currently was reviewed and the significance of these methods in the detection and diagnosis of hydatid and hydatid diseases was also discussed.