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Seasonal dynamics of Haemaphysalis longicornis in the Western Mountain area of Beijing, China

The three-host hard tick Haemaphysalis longicornis Neumann is widespread in the Taihang and Yan Mountain Ranges west of Beijing, China, where it typically parasitizes goats, sheep and cattle, as well as numerous wild mammals and, occasionally, humans. This is the most common of five tick species that have been recorded from the Western Mountain area, part of the Taihang Range, the others being Dermacentor silvarum Olenev, H. concinna Koch, Ixodes persulcatus Schulze, and Rhipicephalus sanguineus (Latreille) (Teng 1990). Field-collected specimens of H. longicornis have been found infected with the agent of Lyme disease, Borrelia burgdorferi (Wan et al. 1998). Moreover, severe infestations of this species are known to produce anemia and emaciation in domestic stock (Li et al. 1999). As a step toward devising suitable control strategies, we investigated the ecology and seasonal dynamics of H. longicornis in the Western Mountain area from May through October 1998 and again from March to April 1999.