ArticleParasites & vectors2019
Bats and ticks: host selection and seasonality of bat-specialist ticks in eastern Europe.
Article in Parasites & vectors, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 25 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
25 citing papers in PubMed, 52 citations in OpenAlex.
- List of Hard Ticks (Acari: Ixodida: Ixodidae) in Subterranean Habitats in Croatia.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Hitchhiking Parasites: Unstructured Populations of Bat Ectoparasites Reveal Host-Driven Dispersal.Molecular ecology · 2026Article
- Ectoparasite Diversity and Infection Burden on Two Sympatric Bat Species,Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- Mitochondrial genome characterization of a Reticulinasus sp. (Argasidae: Ornithodorinae) parasitizing bats in Thailand.Parasites & vectors · 2025Article
- Zoonotic Bacteria and Vector-Borne Protozoa in Troglophilus Bat Colonies in Sicily (Southern Italy): A Biomolecular Survey.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2025Article
- Ixodid ticks of Western Palearctic bats: ecology, host-parasite relationships, geographic distribution and zoonotic importance.Frontiers in veterinary science · 2025Article
- Bat-associated ticks as a potential link for vector-borne pathogen transmission between bats and other animals.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2024Article
- Ecology and phenology of the bat tickParasitology · 2024Article
- Season and host-community composition inside roosts may affect host-specificity of bat flies.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Detection of bacterial and protozoan pathogens in individual bats and their ectoparasites using high-throughput microfluidic real-time PCR.Microbiology spectrum · 2023Article
- Distribution of the soft tick Carios vespertilionis in lowlands and low mountain regions of Germany.Experimental & applied acarology · 2023Article
- Tick findings from subterranean environments in the Central German Uplands and Luxembourg reveal a predominance of male Ixodes hexagonus.Experimental & applied acarology · 2023Article
- Parasitic fauna of bats from Costa Rica.International journal for parasitology. Parasites and wildlife · 2023Article
- Substantial viral and bacterial diversity at the bat-tick interface.Microbial genomics · 2023Article
- Worldwide host associations of the tick genus Ixodes suggest relationships based on environmental sharing rather than on co-phylogenetic events.Parasites & vectors · 2023Article
- Phylogenetic analyses reveal bat communities in Northwestern Mexico harbor a high diversity of novel cryptic ectoparasite species.Ecology and evolution · 2023Article
- Investigation of the Virome and Characterization of Issyk-Kul Virus from SwedishPathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Effects of host state and body condition on parasite infestation of bent-wing bats.Frontiers in zoology · 2022Article
- Wide Distribution and Diversity of Malaria-Related Haemosporidian Parasites (Microorganisms · 2021Article
- Argasid Ticks of Palearctic Bats: Distribution, Host Selection, and Zoonotic Importance.Frontiers in veterinary science · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundParasites may actively seek for hosts and may use a number of adaptive strategies to promote their reproductive success and host colonization. These strategies will necessarily influence their host specificity and seasonality. Ticks are important ectoparasites of vertebrates, which (in addition to directly affecting their hosts) may transmit a number of pathogens. In Europe, three hard tick species (Ixodidae: Ixodes ariadnae, I. simplex and I. vespertilionis) and at least two soft tick species (Argasidae: Argas transgariepinus and A. vespertilionis) are specialized for bats.
methodsHere we report data on the host range of these ticks and the seasonality of tick infestation on wild caught bats in south-east Europe. We collected 1803 ticks from 30 species of bats living in underground shelters (caves and mines) from Romania and Bulgaria. On the basis of tick-host associations, we tested several hypotheses on host-parasite evolutionary adaptations regulating host specificity, seasonality and sympatric speciation.
resultsWe observed significant differences in host specificity and seasonality of abundance between the morphologically different bat specialist ticks (I. simplex and I. vespertilionis) likely caused by their host choice and their respective host-seeking behavior. The two highly generalist, but morphologically similar tick species (I. ariadnae and I. vespertilionis) showed temporal differences in occurrence and activity, thus exploiting significantly different host communities while occurring in geographical sympatry.
conclusionsWe conclude that bat-specialist ticks show a wide range of adaptations to their hosts, with differences in specificity, seasonality of occurrence, the prevalence and intensity of infestation and all these contribute to a successful division of temporal niches of ticks sharing morphologically similar hosts occurring in geographical sympatry.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.