The tick Dermacentor reticulatus and Slovakia - spatiotemporal changes at the beginning of the millennium and ecological and epidemiological contexts

The project is focused on the research of the influence of the water regime of soils on one of the most important and fastest expanding ticks of Central Europe, Dermacentor reticulatus in Slovakia. The specific phenomenon in space and time is its mosaic distribution in lowlands to uplands with an affinity for the surroundings of rivers. The main objective of the project is to analyse the relationship of the occurrence and density of D. reticulatus populations on vegetation, or their absence, with four hydrological soil types described and mapped in Slovakia at the end of the last century: saturated at full water capacity, semi-saturated, semi-arid and arid. According to this map, the documented records of D. reticulatus have an affinity for the semi-saturated soil type, in which the lower layer at a depth of 30 cm to one metre retains moisture even in the summer months, when the tick\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s two very vulnerable developmental stages, larvae and nymphs, sensitive to both drought and flooding, take place in the burrows of its hosts, small ground mammals. Adult ticks, on the other hand, are highly resistant to external factors and can survive several months of flooding, frost and drought. Nevertheless, in south-western Slovakia, with a relatively high proportion of semi-saturated soil type, islands are visible with no previous confirmation of its presence. The project concentrates research on the ecology of ticks and their transmitted agents of bacterial and protozoal diseases of humans and animals, in particular canine babesiosis and others whose occurrence can be assumed. It uses modern methods to detect pathogens and host developmental stages by proof of its residual mitochondrial DNA after metamorphosis. An innovation is the analysis of the correlation of D. reticulatus occurrence with soil hydrology to estimate potential distribution, which can be determined and mapped.