The influence of local environmental factors in southwestern Poland on the abundance of Ixodes ricinus and prevalence of infection with Borrelia burgdorferi s.l. and B. miyamotoi

Entomopathogenic Fungi in Forest Habitats of Ixodes ricinus

“…In this study, we did not statistically confirm the relationship between the occurrence of EF and tick abundance due to the insufficient sample size, which restricts the statistical power needed to detect potentially ecological interactions; however, the impact of EF on local tick populations cannot be excluded. Future studies should aim to collect more extensive data across different geographical regions, including broadleaf forests (BFs), where the largest number of EF was isolated and, as previous studies have shown [38], the largest number of ticks was obtained, to enhance the robustness of statistical analyses. The observed higher number and diversity of EF isolates, such as Metarhizium, Beauveria, and Isaria, in broadleaf forests (BFs) could be influenced by interactions with both abiotic and biotic factors, including soil pH, soil type, method of soil cultivation, organic matter content, temperature, humidity, and host density [47][48][49].…”

“…The forest habitat type was determined using land cover maps available in the Forest Data Bank (https://www.bdl.lasy.gov.pl/portal/mapy, accessed on 24 April 2019). Finally, in the Miękinia Forest District of Lower Silesia, SW Poland, 9 sites (3 sites in each forest habitat type) harboring I. ricinus [38] were selected for the study. All sites were located within the forest complex and, in some cases, close to each other, within a few hundred meters, to avoid ecotone effects.…”

“…All sites were located within the forest complex and, in some cases, close to each other, within a few hundred meters, to avoid ecotone effects. The detailed characteristics of the sites have been described by Dyczko et al [38].…”

“…Preparations for microscopic observation were stained with lactophenol (Sigma, Burlington, MA, USA). [38] were selected for the study. All sites were located within the forest complex and, in some cases, close to each other, within a few hundred meters, to avoid ecotone effects.…”

The Role of Environmental Factors in Lyme Disease Transmission in the European Union: A Systematic Review

“…It was considered a key driver for LD vector abundance [15,[28][29][30][31]33,34,37,[39][40][41][42]44,45,48,58,60,61,[63][64][65][66]73,76,78,81,85,86,88,91,92,94,95], density [36,47,50,62,67,82] and tick bites [80]. Mean [15,[29][30][31]33,34,36,[38][39][40]44,...…”