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Biology, Systematics, Microbiome, Pathogen Transmission and Control of Chiggers (Acari: Trombiculidae, Leeuwenhoekiidae) with Emphasis on the United States

Chiggers are the larval stage of Trombiculidae and Leeuwenhoekiidae mites of medical and veterinary importance. Some species in the genus Leptotrombidium and Herpetacarus vector Orientia species, the bacteria that causes scrub typhus disease in humans. Scrub typhus is a life-threatening, febrile dis...

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Autores principales: Chen, Kaiying, Roe, R. Michael, Ponnusamy, Loganathan
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9690316/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36429867
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192215147
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author Chen, Kaiying
Roe, R. Michael
Ponnusamy, Loganathan
author_facet Chen, Kaiying
Roe, R. Michael
Ponnusamy, Loganathan
author_sort Chen, Kaiying
collection PubMed
description Chiggers are the larval stage of Trombiculidae and Leeuwenhoekiidae mites of medical and veterinary importance. Some species in the genus Leptotrombidium and Herpetacarus vector Orientia species, the bacteria that causes scrub typhus disease in humans. Scrub typhus is a life-threatening, febrile disease. Chigger bites can also cause dermatitis. There were 248 chigger species reported from the US from almost every state. However, there are large gaps in our knowledge of the life history of other stages of development. North American wide morphological keys are needed for better species identification, and molecular sequence data for identification are minimal and not clearly matched with morphological data. The role of chiggers in disease transmission in the US is especially understudied, and the role of endosymbionts in Orientia infection are suggested in the scientific literature but not confirmed. The most common chiggers in the eastern United States were identified as Eutrombicula alfreddugesi but were likely misidentified and should be replaced with Eutrombicula cinnabaris. Scrub typhus was originally believed to be limited to the Tsutsugamushi Triangle and the chigger genus, Leptotrombidium, but there is increasing evidence this is not the case. The potential of Orientia species establishing in the US is high. In addition, several other recognized pathogens to infect humans, namely Hantavirus, Bartonella, Borrelia, and Rickettsia, were also detected in chiggers. The role that chiggers play in these disease transmissions in the US needs further investigation. It is possible some of the tick-borne diseases and red meat allergies are caused by chiggers.
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spelling pubmed-96903162022-11-25 Biology, Systematics, Microbiome, Pathogen Transmission and Control of Chiggers (Acari: Trombiculidae, Leeuwenhoekiidae) with Emphasis on the United States Chen, Kaiying Roe, R. Michael Ponnusamy, Loganathan Int J Environ Res Public Health Review Chiggers are the larval stage of Trombiculidae and Leeuwenhoekiidae mites of medical and veterinary importance. Some species in the genus Leptotrombidium and Herpetacarus vector Orientia species, the bacteria that causes scrub typhus disease in humans. Scrub typhus is a life-threatening, febrile disease. Chigger bites can also cause dermatitis. There were 248 chigger species reported from the US from almost every state. However, there are large gaps in our knowledge of the life history of other stages of development. North American wide morphological keys are needed for better species identification, and molecular sequence data for identification are minimal and not clearly matched with morphological data. The role of chiggers in disease transmission in the US is especially understudied, and the role of endosymbionts in Orientia infection are suggested in the scientific literature but not confirmed. The most common chiggers in the eastern United States were identified as Eutrombicula alfreddugesi but were likely misidentified and should be replaced with Eutrombicula cinnabaris. Scrub typhus was originally believed to be limited to the Tsutsugamushi Triangle and the chigger genus, Leptotrombidium, but there is increasing evidence this is not the case. The potential of Orientia species establishing in the US is high. In addition, several other recognized pathogens to infect humans, namely Hantavirus, Bartonella, Borrelia, and Rickettsia, were also detected in chiggers. The role that chiggers play in these disease transmissions in the US needs further investigation. It is possible some of the tick-borne diseases and red meat allergies are caused by chiggers. MDPI 2022-11-17 /pmc/articles/PMC9690316/ /pubmed/36429867 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192215147 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Review
Chen, Kaiying
Roe, R. Michael
Ponnusamy, Loganathan
Biology, Systematics, Microbiome, Pathogen Transmission and Control of Chiggers (Acari: Trombiculidae, Leeuwenhoekiidae) with Emphasis on the United States
title Biology, Systematics, Microbiome, Pathogen Transmission and Control of Chiggers (Acari: Trombiculidae, Leeuwenhoekiidae) with Emphasis on the United States
title_full Biology, Systematics, Microbiome, Pathogen Transmission and Control of Chiggers (Acari: Trombiculidae, Leeuwenhoekiidae) with Emphasis on the United States
title_fullStr Biology, Systematics, Microbiome, Pathogen Transmission and Control of Chiggers (Acari: Trombiculidae, Leeuwenhoekiidae) with Emphasis on the United States
title_full_unstemmed Biology, Systematics, Microbiome, Pathogen Transmission and Control of Chiggers (Acari: Trombiculidae, Leeuwenhoekiidae) with Emphasis on the United States
title_short Biology, Systematics, Microbiome, Pathogen Transmission and Control of Chiggers (Acari: Trombiculidae, Leeuwenhoekiidae) with Emphasis on the United States
title_sort biology, systematics, microbiome, pathogen transmission and control of chiggers (acari: trombiculidae, leeuwenhoekiidae) with emphasis on the united states
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9690316/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36429867
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192215147
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