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«IZVESTIYA IRKUTSKOGO GOSUDARSTVENNOGO UNIVERSITETA». SERIYA «BIOLOGIYA. ECOLOGIYA»
«THE BULLETIN OF IRKUTSK STATE UNIVERSITY». SERIES «BIOLOGY. ECOLOGY»
ISSN 2073-3372 (Print)

List of issues > Series «Biology. Ecology». 2017. Vol. 22

Small Mammals as Tick-Borne Encephalitis Virus Reservoir Hosts in Natural Foci of Pribaikalie: Modern Situation

Author(s)
O. V. Melnikova, E. A. Vershinin, Yu. A. Verzhutskaya, A. Ya. Nikitin, V. M. Korzun
Abstract
The small mammals, trapped during 2004–2015 in tick-borne encephalitis natural foci in Pribaikalie, have been examined by parasitological, serological and virological methods. Fifty five surveys of small mammals have been held with 1979 trap days, 271 animals, belonging to Rodents and Insectivora have been caught. The species structure was as follows: Siberian chipmunk Tamias sibiricus (Laxmann), house mouse Mus musculus Linnaeus, large Japanese field mouse Apodemus speciosus (Temminck), root vole Microtus oeconomus (Pallas), grey-sided vole Clethrionomys rufocanus (Sundevall), ruddy vole Cl. rutilus (Pallas), wood lemming Myopus schisticolor (Lilljeborg) shrews Sorex sp. (without species definition). Grey-sided voles and shrews predominated, though the domination index differed depending on territory. In general, the distribution of the principal animals was as follows (in descending order): grey-sided vole, shrews, ruddy vole and large Japanese field mouse. Almost 31 % of the small mammals were infested with immature stages of taiga tick Ixodes persulcatus. Two hundred and fifty eight specimens of ixodid ticks have been taken off the animals the population and feeding indices for each host species have been identified. The fundamental role of the red-backed voles (Clethrionomys rufocanus and Cl. rutilus) and shrews Sorex sp. in the taiga tick larva feeding and the tick-borne encephalitis natural foci maintaining in Pribaikalie have been shown. The part of material (brain suspensions) was analyzed for the tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) antigen presence with 22,6 % positive results. TBEV was found in red-backed voles (29,7±7,51 % of studied), shrews (36,8±11,07 %) and root vole (33,3±27,22 %). The virus was isolated from red-backed vole and the shrew, that gives us a reason to appreciate them as important reservoir hosts for TBEV in its natural foci of Pribaikalie.
Keywords
tick-borne encephalitis virus, taiga tick, larva, nymph, feeding hosts, rodents, insectivores
UDC
636.09
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