Toxic elements in ticks determined by atomic emission spectrometry to assess their effect on infectious diseases with natural foci

In recent years, the attention of ecologists and epidemiologists has been attracted to new research into infectious diseases with natural foci, namely the prediction of their spread in the conditions of global warming leading to the expansion of the ixodic tick habitat and industrial environmental pollution. To date, the obtained sufficient data show that vehicle emissions containing such heavy metal ions as Cd, Zn, Cu, Pb, Ni, Mn, Fe, and Co lead to a degradation of ecosystems due to atmospheric air, water and soil pollution, along highways, in particular. Vehicle emissions reach 79% of the total environmental release. It is found that the soil contamination with heavy metals affects the biology and morphology of ticks, decreases their immunity, resulting in the increased susceptibility of ticks to pathogens. Heavy metals have the most harmful effect on flora and fauna. This paper studies the possibility of using the atomic emission spectroscopy by evaporating the dry residue from the end of the graphite electrode to quantify the trace elements in ticks. Research is carried out in the accredited Environmental Monitoring Laboratory of the Tomsk Regional Core Facility Centre at National Research Tomsk State University (Tomsk, Russia). The spectrographic analysis is performed on a Grand atomic emission spectrometer with a fast multichannel analyzer of the emission spectra. Based on the results obtained, the analytical procedure is proposed for the toxic and potentially toxic element concentration in an individual tick, with the use of state standard reference samples of an aqueous solution of salts. The doubling method is used to prove no accuracy error on the model samples. The proposed analytical procedure allows quantifying up to 18 trace elements, the content of which in a tick is nlO^-6 pg and higher, with a relative standard deviation of20-25%.

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