28th Annual Student Research Conference
Trends in the number of host-seeking adult Dermacentor variabilis (American dog tick) abundance between Years
Agraj Poudel
Dr. Stephanie Fore, Faculty Mentor
Ticks are important vectors of pathogens that affect humans and other animals. Understanding patterns of their abundance is important in disease risk assessment. My objective is to report the trends in the number of host-seeking adult Dermacentor variabilis from 2007 to 2014. Ticks were collected in a field and a forested site in Adair County, MO with bait and drag sampling. Adult ticks from each sampling cloth were totaled for each site at each sampling date. More ticks were captured in the field than the forest site. Peak activity was between May to July. Total number of ticks captured per year ranged from 15 to 84. Ticks were most abundant in 2007, 2010, 2011 and 2014. The year with the least number of ticks was 2013. I will be discuss the trends in the number of D. variabilis with the number of confirmed human cases of Rocky Mountain spotted fever.
Keywords: Dermacentor variabilis
Topic(s):Biology
Presentation Type: Poster
Session: 3-14
Location: GEO-SUB
Time: 3:30