Abstract：
Background: Tick-borne diseases are an emerging threat to public health throughout the temperate world, leading to a growing field of research aimed at developing and testing intervention strategies for reducing human-tick encounters or prevalence of infection in ticks. Various wide-spectrum chemical acaricides have proven effective for controlling tick populations, but many of these have potential deleterious side-effects on health and the environment. In addition to chemical acaricides, certain compounds such as diatomaceous earth have been shown to have physical acaricidal properties. We hypothesized that dolomitic lime (CaMg(CO3)2, a corrosive, desiccant mineral that is already used extensively in agricultural and forestry contexts to balance the pH of soils, may affect ticks\' locomotory activity, habitat position, or survival and that this should manifest as a reduction in the number of questing ticks collected by dragging. Objective: This study aimed to formally assess this hypothesis in a controlled laboratory setting. Methods: We carried out a microcosm experiment, with one control and three treated microcosm trays, each replicating the natural substrate characterizing I. scapularis habitat in northeastern North America. Each tray was infested with 200 living larvae and 50 nymphs, and then treated with 0 (control), 50, 100, or 500 g/m2 of lime powder. Ticks were collected by microdragging 24 and 72 h postliming. Results: Efficacy of liming at reducing the number of collected questing ticks ranged from 87% to 100% for larvae and 0% to 69% for nymphs 24 h postliming and from 91% to 93% for larvae and -47% to 65% for nymphs 72 postliming. Conclusion: This study provides the first experimental evidence of the potential efficacy of liming for impairing activity of questing immature ticks. Given that lime is a low-cost material, that methods for widespread application in deciduous woodlands already exist, and that it has been documented as having a limited negative impact on the environment, further assessment of lime application as a public health risk reduction intervention for tick-borne diseases is warranted.
摘要：
背景：蜱传疾病是整个温带世界对公共卫生的新兴威胁，导致越来越多的研究领域旨在开发和测试干预策略，以减少人与蜱的接触或蜱感染的流行。各种广谱化学杀螨剂已被证明对控制蜱种群有效，但是其中许多对健康和环境有潜在的有害副作用。除了化学杀螨剂，某些化合物如硅藻土已显示具有物理杀螨性质。我们假设白云石石灰(CaMg(CO3)2，一种腐蚀性，干燥剂矿物已经广泛用于农业和林业环境，以平衡土壤的pH值，可能会影响蜱的运动活动，栖息地位置，或生存，这应该表现为通过拖动收集的任务蜱数量的减少。目的：本研究旨在在受控实验室环境中正式评估这一假设。方法：我们进行了微观实验，有一个对照和三个处理过的缩影托盘，每个人都复制了表征I的天然底物。北美东北部的肩胛骨栖息地。每个托盘都有200只活幼虫和50只若虫，然后用0（对照）处理，50、100或500g/m2的石灰粉。通过微动后24和72小时的微动来收集蜱。结果：授粉后24小时，幼虫的授粉率从87％到100％，若虫的授粉率从0％到69％，幼虫的授粉率从91％到93％，而-47％到65％对于若虫72授粉。结论：这项研究提供了第一个实验证据，证明了石灰对破坏未成熟蜱的活性的潜在功效。鉴于石灰是一种低成本材料，在落叶林地广泛应用的方法已经存在，并且它被证明对环境的负面影响有限，有必要进一步评估石灰作为减少蜱传疾病的公共卫生风险干预措施.
