Members of the Eötvös Loránd Research Network (ELKH) and the University of Veterinary Medicine (ÁTE) Climate Change: New Bloodsucking Parasites and Vector-borne Pathogens research group, Dr. Keve Gergő and Prof. Sándor Hornok, examined during their nationwide research how -is there a difference in the territorial distribution of ticks parasitizing birds. A total of ten immature specimens of Hyalomma rufipes, widespread in Africa, were identified on individuals of the spotted reed warbler and this year’s bird of the year in the western region of Balaton . Since these bird species do not migrate during their breeding season, and one of the ticks removed from them was a larva still at the beginning of its blood-sucking process and three, the sequence of the maternally inherited gene was found to be the same for all ten ticks , it can be concluded that they come from a local population and even probably belong to the same genetic branch. The young larva and the close genetic relationship mean that the newly discovered population is also able to reproduce in Hungary. The publication presenting the results was published in the scientific journal Frontiers in Veterinary Science .
A specimen of Hyalomma rufipes collected in Hungary in 2011. (Photo: ELKH)
The research was assisted by the ornithologists of the Hungarian Ornithological and Nature Society (MME), who in 2022 removed almost a thousand ticks from 540 birds during the inspection of birds captured for ringing. Among the samples from Transdanubia, specimens of a particularly dangerous tick species, Hyalomma rufipes ( H. rufipes ), were identified, which mainly lives in Central and South Africa, but its populations have also settled in smaller areas in North Africa. In one of the bird migration research sites in the western region of Lake Balaton, there were ten immature H. rufipes in a total of five individuals of the Spotted Reed Warbler and Bearded reedling living in the reeds.t was found on the same day. The local origin of the ticks is confirmed by the fact that they parasitized the birds at the end of June, during the breeding period, so they could not have brought them from a southern country, especially not from Africa.
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Since one of the specimens removed from the birds was a larva at the beginning of its blood-sucking process, and the sequence of three maternally inherited genes was the same for all ticks, it can be concluded that they come from a local population and even probably belong to the same genetic branch. The young larva and the close genetic kinship also mean that the discovered population – whose founding specimens may have been brought in by migrating birds from the south – is also capable of breeding in Hungary. At the same time, it is not certain that they will be able to survive the winter, although the mild winter favors this, and according to literature data, H. rufipes can tolerate up to 120 frosty days per year.
Bearded reedling (bird of the year in Hungary in 2023). Photo: ELKH
The regular domestic occurrence of adult ticks belonging to the Hyalomma group was published by the mite researcher Dr. Lajos Karpelles already 130 years ago, in 1893, and then at the beginning of the 20th century – moreover, also from Transdanubia – by Prof. Sándor Kotlán . However, the local population of H. rufipes capable of reproduction was not known either in Hungary or in Europe. Adult specimens of this tick species were identified by the head of the current research in 2011 on cattle in the same Transdanubia county.
Further intensive research is being conducted in the affected area of Little and Western Balaton to investigate whether specimens of the tick population overwinter and whether they will still appear on birds, domestic and wild animals in 2023. The researchers emphasize that the discovered population is located far from inhabited settlements, in a reedy habitat where this species and the pathogens it spreads do not pose a direct threat to beachgoers or hikers.
Source: ELKH