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leptotrombidium (medicine)


Leptotrombidium


An important genus of trombiculid mites, formerly considered a subgenus of the genus Trombicula, which includes all of the vectors of scrub typhus (tsutsugamushi disease). Members of Leptotrombidium that serve as vectors of scrub typhus are within the Leptotrombidium deliense group: Leptotrombidium akamushi is the classical vector in Japan; Leptotrombidium deliense is the primary vector, extending from New Guinea, Australia, the Philippines, China, and Southeast Asia to western Pakistan; Leptotrombidium fletcheri is found in Malaysia, New Guinea, and the Philippines. Some eight other species have also been implicated in scrub typhus transmission in more limited areas.

Leptotrombidium akamushi, one of two species, the other being Leptotrombidium deliensis (T. Deliensis), implicated in the transmission of Rickettsia tsutsugamushi, agent of tsutsugamushi disease in Japan and elsewhere in the Orient; the larvae of these species are characteristic parasites of rodents, which therefore are reservoirs of human infections, although the mites themselves are also reservoirs, as their rickettsial parasites are transovarially transmitted from generation to generation (a requirement for transmission to humans as only larval mites feed parasitically and then only once in their lifetimes).

Synonym: Trombicula akamushi.