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A Beginner’s Guide to Collecting Questing Hard Ticks (Acari: Ixodidae): A Standardized Tick Dragging Protocol

Tick-borne diseases are emerging globally, necessitating increased research and coordination of tick surveillance practices. The most widely used technique for active collection of host-seeking, human-biting tick vectors is ‘tick dragging’, by which a cloth is dragged across the top of the vegetatio...

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Autores principales: Salomon, Jordan, Hamer, Sarah A, Swei, Andrea
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Oxford University Press 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7604844/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33135760
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jisesa/ieaa073
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author Salomon, Jordan
Hamer, Sarah A
Swei, Andrea
author_facet Salomon, Jordan
Hamer, Sarah A
Swei, Andrea
author_sort Salomon, Jordan
collection PubMed
description Tick-borne diseases are emerging globally, necessitating increased research and coordination of tick surveillance practices. The most widely used technique for active collection of host-seeking, human-biting tick vectors is ‘tick dragging’, by which a cloth is dragged across the top of the vegetation or forest floor and regularly checked for the presence of ticks. Use of variable dragging protocols limits the ability of researchers to combine data sets for comparative analyses or determine patterns and trends across different spatial and temporal scales. Standardization of tick drag collection and reporting methodology will greatly benefit the field of tick-pathogen studies. Based on the recommendations of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and other ecological considerations, we propose that tick dragging should be conducted to sample at least 750 m(2) along linear transects when habitat allows in a manner that reduces bias in the sampled area, and report density of each tick species and life stage separately. A protocol for constructing a standard drag cloth, establishing linear transects, and drag sampling is presented, along with a downloadable datasheet that can be modified to suit the needs of different projects. Efforts to align tick surveillance according to these standard best practices will help generate robust data on tick population biology.
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spelling pubmed-76048442020-11-06 A Beginner’s Guide to Collecting Questing Hard Ticks (Acari: Ixodidae): A Standardized Tick Dragging Protocol Salomon, Jordan Hamer, Sarah A Swei, Andrea J Insect Sci Special Collection: Protocols in Medical and Veterinary Entomology Tick-borne diseases are emerging globally, necessitating increased research and coordination of tick surveillance practices. The most widely used technique for active collection of host-seeking, human-biting tick vectors is ‘tick dragging’, by which a cloth is dragged across the top of the vegetation or forest floor and regularly checked for the presence of ticks. Use of variable dragging protocols limits the ability of researchers to combine data sets for comparative analyses or determine patterns and trends across different spatial and temporal scales. Standardization of tick drag collection and reporting methodology will greatly benefit the field of tick-pathogen studies. Based on the recommendations of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and other ecological considerations, we propose that tick dragging should be conducted to sample at least 750 m(2) along linear transects when habitat allows in a manner that reduces bias in the sampled area, and report density of each tick species and life stage separately. A protocol for constructing a standard drag cloth, establishing linear transects, and drag sampling is presented, along with a downloadable datasheet that can be modified to suit the needs of different projects. Efforts to align tick surveillance according to these standard best practices will help generate robust data on tick population biology. Oxford University Press 2020-11-02 /pmc/articles/PMC7604844/ /pubmed/33135760 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jisesa/ieaa073 Text en © The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Entomological Society of America. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Special Collection: Protocols in Medical and Veterinary Entomology
Salomon, Jordan
Hamer, Sarah A
Swei, Andrea
A Beginner’s Guide to Collecting Questing Hard Ticks (Acari: Ixodidae): A Standardized Tick Dragging Protocol
title A Beginner’s Guide to Collecting Questing Hard Ticks (Acari: Ixodidae): A Standardized Tick Dragging Protocol
title_full A Beginner’s Guide to Collecting Questing Hard Ticks (Acari: Ixodidae): A Standardized Tick Dragging Protocol
title_fullStr A Beginner’s Guide to Collecting Questing Hard Ticks (Acari: Ixodidae): A Standardized Tick Dragging Protocol
title_full_unstemmed A Beginner’s Guide to Collecting Questing Hard Ticks (Acari: Ixodidae): A Standardized Tick Dragging Protocol
title_short A Beginner’s Guide to Collecting Questing Hard Ticks (Acari: Ixodidae): A Standardized Tick Dragging Protocol
title_sort beginner’s guide to collecting questing hard ticks (acari: ixodidae): a standardized tick dragging protocol
topic Special Collection: Protocols in Medical and Veterinary Entomology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7604844/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33135760
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jisesa/ieaa073
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