Table 1 Publicly available studies that have attempted to identify if S. scabiei can be genetically separated based upon location and/or host

Zahler et al. (1999) [55]

Bos taurus (Germany)

Camelus dromedarius (Germany)

Canis lupus familiaris (USA, India, Malaysia, New Zealand)

Lynx pardinus (Sweden)

Nyctereutes procyonoides (Japan)

Rupicapra rupicapra (Austria)

Sus scrofa (Germany, Belgium, Spain)

Vombatidae (Australia)

Vulpes vulpes (Sweden, Germany)

ITS-2: No separation due to location or host

Walton et al. (1999) [47]

Canis lupus familiaris (Australia, USA)

Homo sapiens (Australia, Panama)

Vombatus ursinus (Australia)

Microsatellites: Human and dog derived mites cluster by host rather than location.

Skerratt et al. (2002) [34]

Canis lupus familiaris (Australia)

Homo sapiens (Australia)

Vombatus ursinus (Australia)

12S rRNA: Wombats, dogs and humans had similar sequences.

Berrilli et al. (2002) [53]

Rupicapra pyrenaica (Spain)

Rupicapra rupicapra (Italy)

Vulpes vulpes (Italy, Spain)

ITS-2: No host or geographical separation.

16S rRNA: Indicated significant differences between locations.

Walton et al. (2004) [35]

Homo sapiens (Australia, Panama)

Canis lupus familiaris (Australia, USA)

Macropus (Australia)

Pan troglodytes (Tanzania)

Vombatus ursinus (Australia)

Vulpes vulpes (Sweden)

16S: Produced three groups: (i) human mites from Panama; (ii) human mites from Australia; (iii) mixed human and animal mites.

COX1: Produced three groups: (i) human mites from Panama; (ii) human mites from Australia; (iii) mixed human and animal mites.

Microsatellites: Separated human mites into two distinct geographical clusters and further divided the animal mites into hosts groups.

Soglia et al. (2007) [49]

Capra ibex (Italy)

Cervus elaphus (Italy)

Martes foina (Italy)

Martes martes (Italy)

Ovis gmelini (Italy)

Rupicapra pyrenaica (Spain)

Rupicapra rupicapra (Italy)

Sus scrofa (France)

Vulpes vulpes (Italy, Spain)

Microsatellites: Low levels of cross infections. Not strongly supportive of geographical separation within same host-specific varieties.

Gu & Yang (2008) [56]

Oryctolagus (China)

Sus scrofa (China)

ITS-2: Single heterogeneous species.

Alasaad et al. (2009) [38]

Capra ibex (Italy)

Capra pyrenaica (Spain)

Cervus elaphus (Italy)

Martes foina (Italy)

Ovis aries musimon (Italy)

Rupicapra pyrenaica (Spain)

Rupicapra rupicapra (Italy)

Sus scrofa (Italy, France)

Vulpes vulpes (Italy, Spain, Switzerland)

ITS-2: Not suitable to identify genetic diversity among mites from different animals in different locations: monospecific.

Rasero et al. (2010) [50]

Capra ibex (Italy)

Capra pyrenaica (Spain)

Cervus elaphus (Italy)

Martes foina (Italy, Spain)

Martes martes (Italy)

Ovis aries musimon (Italy)

Ovis aries musimon (Italy)

Rupicapra pyrenaica (Spain)

Rupicapra rupicapra (Italy)

Sus scrofa (Italy, France)

Vulpes vulpes (Italy, Spain)

Microsatellites: Mites clustered into herbivore, carnivore and omnivore derived mite populations and the level of genetic exchange between mites from different locations is related to geographical distance.

Gakuya et al. (2011) [52]

Acinonyx jubatus (Kenya)

Connochaetes taurinus (Kenya)

Eudorcas thompsonii (Kenya)

Panthera leo (Kenya)

Microsatellites: Host-taxon specification with potentially predator/prey association.

Alasaad et al. (2011) [44]

Capreolus capreolus (Spain)

Cervus elaphus (Spain)

Rupicapra pyrenaica (Spain)

Vulpes vulpes (Spain)

Microsatellites: Herbivore, carnivore and omnivore separation.

Amer et al. (2014) [32]

Bos taurus (Egypt)

Bubalus bubalis (Egypt)

Oryctolagus (Egypt)

Ovis aries (Egypt)

ITS-2: No host segregation

COX1: Host adaptation and geographically separated mites

16S: Shows host adaptation and geographically separated mites.

Zhao et al. (2015) [42]

Canis lupus familiaris (China)

Homo sapiens (China)

16S: Differentiate S. hominis from S. animal populations, but not as effective as COX1.

COX1: Classified mites by different hosts with S. hominis further divided based on locations.

ITS-2: No host or geographical preference.

Makouloutou et al. (2015) [54]

Canis lupus familiaris (Japan)

Capricornis crispus (Japan)

Martes melampus (Japan)

Meles anakuma (Japan)

Nyctereutes procyonoides viverrinus (Japan)

Procyon lotor (Japan)

Sus scrofa leucomystax (Japan)

ITS-2: Only good for identification of causative agent.

16S: Showed minor genetic differences regardless of hosts in Japan.

COX 1: Showed minor genetic differences regardless of hosts in Japan.

Erster et al. (2015) [57]

Canis aureus (Israel)

Erinaceus concolor (Israel)

Orictolagus cuniculus (Israel)

Vulpes vulpes (Israel)

COX1: Did not indicate host preference.

GST1: Differences in host preference.

VCCS: Differences in host preference.

Andriantsoanirina et al. (2015) [36]

Homo sapiens (France)

Canis lupus familiaris (France)

12S rRNA: Using Skerratt et al. [34] haplotypes concluded that a single French human mite sequence was identical to the reference S. scabiei var wombatii.

Andriantsoanirina et al. (2015) [37]

Homo sapiens (France)

COX1: Identified three genetically distinct clades: two clades exclusive to humans and one clade with a mix of both animals and humans. One of the two human mite clades had a mix of Australian and French samples.