Host-Vector-Pathogen Interactions of Tick-Borne Diseases in Hokkaido Wildlife

Abstract

　Recently conservation medicine has been notified as one of academic fields which contribute for biodiversity conservation from the viewpoint of medicine and veterinary medicine. Infectious diseases are one of important issues of conservation medicine. Knowledge on ecology of animal hosts, vectors and pathogens (microbes) as well as information on pathology and epidemiology of human and domestic animals are needed for consideration of useful countermeasure against infectious diseases. In this study, the host-vector-pathogen relations are thought from the viewpoint of disease ecology with some examples such as Lyme and relapsing fever Borrelia spp., Anaplasma spp., Ehrlichia spp., Candidatus Neoehrlichia sp. and Babesia spp.