An Ixodes dentatus adult female was taken from a cottontail rabbit in Kalamazoo County, and a nymph from a child in Berrien County, in 1992 in Michigan. These findings represent the first records of I.dentatus in the state, and document an unusual parasitization of a human being by this species of tick

Poplar, Melvin L

Russell, Howard L

Walker, Edward D

English

Valparaiso University

The Great Lakes Entomologist Volume 25 Number 4 - Winter 1992 Number 4 - Winter 1992 Article 9 October 1992 Ixodes Dentatus (Acari: Ixodidae) in Michigan: First State Records and Occurrence on a Human Edward D. Walker Michigan State University Melvin L. Poplar Michigan Department of Public Health Howard L. Russell Michigan State University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholar.valpo.edu/tgle  Part of the Entomology Commons Recommended Citation Walker, Edward D.; Poplar, Melvin L.; and Russell, Howard L. 1992. "Ixodes Dentatus (Acari: Ixodidae) in Michigan: First State Records and Occurrence on a Human," The Great Lakes Entomologist, vol 25 (4) Available at: https://scholar.valpo.edu/tgle/vol25/iss4/9 This Peer-Review Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of Biology at ValpoScholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in The Great Lakes Entomologist by an authorized administrator of ValpoScholar. For more information, please contact a ValpoScholar staff member at scholar@valpo.edu. 1992 THE GREAT LAKES ENTOMOLOGIST 303 IXODES DENTATUS (ACARI: IXODIDAE) IN MICHIGAN: FIRST STATE RECORDS AND OCCURRENCE ON A HUMAN Edward D. Walkeri, Melvin L. Poplar2, and Howard L. Russell l ABSTRACT An Ixodes dentatus adult female was taken from a cottontail rabbit in Kalamazoo County, and a ymph from a child in Berrien County, in 1992 in Michigan. These findings repre ent the first records of 1.dentatus in the state, and document an unusual parasitization of a human being by this spe­cies of tick. Ixodes dentatus Marx is distributed in the eastern U.S., mainly occurring in coastal states, but it has been reported from several inland states as well, including Indiana and Ohio (Cooley and K hls 1945, Clifford et al. 1961, Keirans and Clifford 1978, Kollars 1992). There are no previous records of this tick from Michigan. Ixodes dentatus normally parasitizes cottontail rabbits (Sylvilagus floridanus). It has also been found on several species of passerine birds, woodchucks, a white-footed mouse, and Norway rats (op. cit.). In this note, we report the presence of 1. d tatus in Michigan, and document parasit­ism of a human being. On May 15,1992, in Kalamazoo County, apet dog flushed a young cotton­tail rabbit from a hole. The dog's owner, a county health department sanitar­ian, noticed a tick o  the rabbit and submitted it to the Michigan Department of Public Health (MDPH) for identification. We identified the tick as an adult, female 1. dentatus. On June 15, 1992, parents in Berrien County, Michigan noticed a tick embedded in their child's head, between the ear and hairline. They submitted the tick to the state health department, via their county health department, for identification. We identified the tick as an 1. dentatus nymph. The tick was not bloodfed. Ixodes dentatus has not previously been identified from among 4,462 tick identification records compiled by the MDPH since 1968. These records include tick submissions from the public for identification by the MDPH; the Parasitology Laboratory, Michigan State University Veterinary Clinic; and the insect diagnostic service at the Department of Entomology, Michigan State University. Thus, our observations may represent new state distribu­tion records for 1. dentatus. Indeed, these two records in the outhwestern part of the state may indicate that 1. dentatus has recently become estab­lished in Michigan. Alternatively,!. dentatus may be endemic in the state, but has not previously been documented simply owing to a lack of surveys. Experimentally,!. dentatus is a competent vector of Borrelia burgdorferi, IDepartment of Entomology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824. 2Michigan Department of Public Health, Bureau of Envir nmental and Occupa· tional Health, Insect and Rodent Control Unit, 3500 N. Logan St., P.OBox 30035, Lansing, MI 48909. 1Walker et al.: <i>Ixodes Dentatus</i> (Acari: Ixodidae) in Michigan: First StatePublished by ValpoScholar, 1992304 THE GREAT LAKES ENTOMOLOGIST Vol. 25, No.4 the spirochete that causes Lyme disease (Telford and Spielman 1989a). This spirochete has been isolated from I. dentatus in Connecticut. Massachusetts, and Virginia (Anderson et al. 1989, Telford and Spielman 1989b, Levine et al. 1991), suggesting that B. burgdorferi may be maintained in a zoonotic cycle involving I. dentatus and rabbits, separate from the well-documented cycle involving Peromyscus mice and Ixodes dammini Spielman, Clifford, Piesman, and Corwin (Lane et al. 1991). Although we do not suspect that I. dentatus currently is an enzootic vector of the Lyme disease spirochete in Michigan, its presence along with I. dammini and B. burgdorferi in the state (Strand et al. 1992; E.D. Walker and M.L. Poplar, unpublished data) intimates that it may have some future role. Whether 1. dentatus could transmit B. burgdorferi to humans depends upon whether this tick ever bites people. Th  f equency of this event is apparently very low (Anderson et al. 1989; R.A. Restifo, Vector­Borne Disease Unit, Ohio Department of Health, personal communication). Our observation of 1. dentatus parasitizing a human documents his rare event in Michigan. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We are grateful to J.E. Keirans, curator of the National Tick Collection, Georgia Southern University, for confirming the I. dentatus identifications. The nymph was deposited with that collection, specimen number RML 120803. LITERATURE CITED Anderson, J.F., L.A. Magnarelli, R.B. LeFebvre, T.G. Andreadis, J.B. McAninch, G.C. Perng, and R.C. Johnson. 1989. Antigenically variable Borreli  burgdorfen isolated from cottontail rabbits and Ixodes dentatus in rural and urban areas. J. Clin. Micro­bioI. 27:13-20. Clifford, C.M., G. Anastos, and A. ElbL 1961. Larval Ixodid ticks of the eas ern United States. Misc. Pub!. Entomol. Soc. Am. 2:213-237. Cooley, R.A. and G.M. Kohls. 1945. The genus Ixodes in North America. Nat!. Inst. Health Bull. 184, 246 pp. Keirans. J.E. and C.M. Clifford. 1978. The genus Ixodes in the United States: a scanning electron microscope study and key to the adults. J. Med. Entomol. 2:1-149 (supp!.). Kollars,T.M., Jr. 1992. New host of Ixodes dentatus (Acari: Ixodidae) and first record in Tennessee. J. Med. Entomo!. 29:715-716. Lane, R.S., J. Piesman, and W. Burgdorfer. 1991. Lyme borreliosis: relation of its caus· ative agent to its vectors and hosts in North America and Europe. Ann. Rev. Ento­mol. 36;587-609. Levine, J.F., D.E. Sonenshine, W.L. Nicholson, and R.T. Thrner. 1991. Bor elia burgdo".. fen in ticks (Acari: Ixodidae) from coastal Virginia. J. Med. Entomol. 28:668-674. Strand, R.M., E.n. Walker, and R.W. Merritt. 1992. Field studies on Ixodes dammini in the upper peninsula of Michigan. Vector Control Bull. North Cent. Sta es 1:111-118. Telford, S.R. and A. Spielman. 1989a. Competence of a rabbit· feeding Ixodes (Acari: Ixodidae) as a vector of th  Lyme disease spirochete. J. Med. Entomol. 41:482-490. 1989b. Enzootic transmission of the agent of Lyme disease in rabbits. Am. J. Trop. Med. Hyg. 41:482-490. 2The Great Lakes Entomologist, Vol. 25, No. 4 [1992], Art. 9https://scholar.valpo.edu/tgle/vol25/iss4/9

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\u3ci\u3eIxodes Dentatus\u3c/i\u3e (Acari: Ixodidae) in Michigan: First State Records and Occurrence on a Human

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