The Channel Islands are British Crown dependencies located in the English Channel to the west of the Normandy coast in northern France. Whilst there have been studies investigating tick occurrence and distribution in different habitats on the mainland of the UK and in France, the Channel Islands have been relatively understudied. As such, little is known about whether the sheep tick, Ixodes ricinus, is present, and whether there is a potential risk of Lyme borreliosis on the Channel Islands. To ascertain the presence of I. ricinus on the three largest islands in the archipelago: Jersey, Guernsey and Alderney, surveys of ticks questing in the vegetation and ticks feeding on hosts were undertaken during April and May 2016. Across all three islands, the highest numbers of ticks were found in woodland habitats. Ixodes ricinus was the predominant questing tick species found on Jersey, and Ixodes ventalloi the most common questing tick species on Alderney and Guernsey, with little or no evidence of questing I. ricinus on either island. During field studies on small mammals, I. ricinus was the predominant tick species feeding on Jersey bank voles (Myodes glareolus caesarius), with Ixodes hexagonus the most common species infesting hedgehogs on Guernsey. We propose that the greater diversity of small mammals on Jersey may be important in supporting immature stages of I. ricinus, in contrast to Guernsey and Alderney. Morphological identification of tick species was confirmed by PCR sequencing based on amplification of the cytochrome c oxidase subunit one (cox1) gene (COI DNA barcoding). To date, there have been few records of human tick bites in the Channel Islands, suggesting that the current risk from tick-borne disease may be low, but continued reporting of any human tick bites, along with reporting of cases of Lyme borreliosis will be important for continued assessment of the impact of tick-borne diseases in the Channel Islands.

海峡群岛是位于法国北部诺曼底海岸以西的英吉利海峡的英属王室附属物。尽管已经进行了一些研究，以调查英国大陆和法国不同栖息地的tick的发生和分布，但海峡群岛的研究相对较少。因此，对于绵羊是否存在壁虱（Ixodes ricinus）以及在海峡群岛上是否存在莱姆病的潜在风险知之甚少。确定蓖麻毒素的存在在群岛的三个最大岛屿：泽西岛，根西岛和奥尔德尼岛上，2016年4月和2016年5月对survey虫在植被中的and虫和以寄主为食的tick虫进行了调查。在这三个岛上，林地栖息地中tick虫的数量最多。蓖麻x是在泽西岛上发现的主要tick科物种，腹泻x是在奥尔德尼和根西岛上最常见的tick科物种，很少或没有证据表明在每个岛上都可以发现蓖麻。在小型哺乳动物领域的研究，一个蜱是主要的蜱物种泽西银行田鼠摄食（Myodes glareolus caesarius），用六角硬蜱根西岛上最常见的刺猬物种。我们认为，与格恩西岛和奥尔德尼岛相反，泽西岛上小型哺乳动物的更大多样性可能对支持蓖麻毒杆菌的未成熟阶段很重要。通过基于细胞色素C氧化酶亚基一（cox1）基因（COI DNA条形码）扩增的PCR测序确认tick虫的形态学鉴定。迄今为止，在海峡群岛尚无人类tick叮咬的记录，这表明目前由tick传播的疾病的风险可能较低，但将继续报告任何人类tick叮咬以及莱姆病的报告。对于持续评估of传播疾病在海峡群岛的影响非常重要。