A seasonal chigger-borne disease surveillance program was established at Geoje in March, April, October, and November, 2023. Three species of 45 wild rodents were collected by using Sherman traps, including Apodemus agrarius (Species Ratio; SR 88.9%), Crocidura spp. (SR 8.9%), Micromys minutus (SR 2.2%) in Geoje, 2023. A total of 2,597 chiggers were collected from three species of the rodents in Geoje. The chigger mites were collected from A. agrarius (Chigger Index; CI 64.9) and C. spp. (CI 0.3) for Geoje. In the collection environments, a total number of 734, 659, 172, 520, and 512 chiggers were collected from a reservoir, a ditch, a rice paddy, a field, and a hill, respectively. In the results of the isolation of Orientia tsutsugamushi from the chigger mites, no pathogens were detected from the DNA of the 62 pools of the mites using a Polymerase Chain Reaction method in 2023.

• Jae-Soon Park(Department of Health & Environment, Kosin University, Busan 49104)
• Chang-Jun Lee(Department of Health & Environment, Kosin University, Busan 49104)
• Hye-Rim Ju(Department of Health & Environment, Kosin University, Busan 49104)
• Suvin Cho(Department of Health & Environment, Kosin University, Busan 49104)
• Hyunji Shin(Department of Health & Environment, Kosin University, Busan 49104)
• Sun Ho Jung(Department of Health & Environment, Kosin University, Busan 49104)
• Sehoon Cho(Division of Vectors and Parasitic Diseases, Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, Osong, 28159)
• Dong-Kyu Lee(Department of Health & Environment, Kosin University, Busan 49104)