Mites Present in Small Terrestrial Mammals in a Preserved Unit inside the Atlantic Rainforest including Pathogen Monitoring

Mites are known ectoparasites of humans and animals and have been studied for many years in the medical and veterinary field. At environments with little anthropic actions, these mites interact with their natural hosts making it possible to learn more about their ecology, being rodents and mammals their main primary hosts. The Legado das Águas reserve is located inside the Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest with high levels of conservation exploring mostly the ecotourism. The objective of this study was to explore the ecological aspects of the collected mites in three areas of the preserved unit and search rickettsiae bacteria in the samples. Mites were collected from rodents and marsupials captures using Sherman and Tomahawk traps and later identified using taxonomic keys. The mites were individualized, had their DNA extracted and further tested for Rickettsia DNA. A total of 6,947 mites were collected belonging to three families (Laelapidae, Macronyssidae and Trombiculidae) on 478 hosts, of these 186 mites were processed individually for the pathogen research and no sample retrieved positive results. This study reports new mite records for hosts and localities and explore the ecology between the mites, hosts and areas inside the Atlantic Rainforest.