ixodid tick
すでに取り上げられていますが、ダニに感染した野良猫に噛まれた女性が亡くなりました。
Woman bitten by cat dies of tick-borne disease
TOKYO (Jiji Press) — A woman in western Japan died of a tick-borne viral illness last year after being bitten by a sick stray cat, according to the health ministry and the National Institute of Infectious Diseases.
The woman, in her 50s, developed a severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome, or SFTS, in summer last year and died 10 days later, the ministry and the institute said Monday.
Humans bitten by ixodid ticks, which inhabit forests and grass fields, may be infected with the SFTS virus, and infections have been reported in Japan, China and South Korea. There has been no confirmed case of a human contracting the disease via an animal, however.
http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0003840473
“ixodid tick”を取りあげます。文中に“which inhabit forests and grass fields”とあることからダニの一種であることが予測できます。
Merriam-Websterで“ixodid” /iksɑ'did/を確認すると“of or relating to a family (Ixodidae) of ticks (such as the deer tick and American dog tick) having a hard outer shell and feeding on usually three hosts during the life cycle”とあり、ペットや人に飛びついて血を吸う「マダニ」を表す形容詞ということがわかりました。名詞形は“Ixodidae”です。
布団などにいる「ダニ」は0.2〜0.4ミリほどの大きさで主にアレルギーの原因となりますが、今回話題となっている「マダニ」の体長は2〜3ミリで血を吸うと100倍以上もの体重になり病原体を運ぶ可能性があるそうです。マダニに噛まれたと思ったら、感染症を引き起こす被害を防ぐために速やかに病院で診てもらいましょう。(flying bird)
tick-borne - 田邉祐司ゼミ 常時英心：言葉の森から
