• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.52 no.5
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• pp.565-568
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• 2014

Ticks and tick-borne diseases are important in human and livestock health worldwide. In November 2012, ixodid ticks were collected and identified morphologically from cattle and wild animals in the Maswa district and Iringa urban, Tanzania. Amblyomma gemma, A. lepidum, and A. variegatum were identified from Maswa cattle, and A. variegatum was the predominant species. A. marmoreum, Hyalomma impeltatum, and Rhipicephalus pulchellus were identified from Iringa cattle in addition to the above 3 Amblyomma species, and A. gemma was the most abundant species. Total 4 Amblyomma and 6 Rhipicephalus species were identified from wild animals of the 2 areas. A. lepidum was predominant in Maswa buffaloes, whereas A. gemma was predominant in Iringa buffaloes. Overall, A. variegatum in cattle was predominant in the Maswa district and A. gemma was predominant in Iringa, Tanzania.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.307-310
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• 2007

A survey was carried out to investigate the prevalence of hard tick species (Acari: Ixodidae) on cattle in Mazandaran province, Iran. A total of 953 ticks were collected from 86 infested cattle during activating seasons of ticks during 2004-2005. Nine species were identified: Boophilus annulatus (51.3%), Rhipicephalus bursa (16.8%), Haemaphysalis punctata (6.3%), Ixodes ricinus (6.8%), Hyalomma marginatum (12.5%), Hyalomma anatolicum excavatum (5.2%), Hyalomma asiaticum (0.6%), Hyalomma detritum (0.2 %), and Dermacentor spp. (0.1%). The results show that Boophilus annulatus, Rhipicephalus bursa, and Hyalomma species are dominant tick species in the surveyed area.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.58 no.1
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• pp.37-46
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• 2020

Livestock husbandry is vital to economy of the Tarim Basin, Xinjiang Autonomous Region, China. However, there have been few surveys of the distribution of ixodid ticks (Acari: Ixodidae) and tick-borne pathogens affecting domestic animals at these locations. In this study, 3,916 adult ixodid ticks infesting domestic animals were collected from 23 sampling sites during 2012-2016. Ticks were identified to species based on morphology, and the identification was confirmed based on mitochondrial 16S and 12S rRNA sequences. Ten tick species belonging to 4 genera were identified, including Rhipicephalus turanicus, Hyalomma anatolicum, Rh. bursa, H. asiaticum asiaticum, and Rh. sanguineus. DNA sequences of Rickettsia spp. (spotted fever group) and Anaplasma spp. were detected in these ticks. Phylogenetic analyses revealed possible existence of undescribed Babesia spp. and Borrelia spp. This study illustrates potential threat to domestic animals and humans from tick-borne pathogens.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.52 no.2
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• pp.221-224
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• 2014

Larvae, nymphs, and adult stages of 3 species of ixodid ticks were collected by tick drag methods in Seoul during June-October 2013, and their infection status with severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) virus was examined using RT-PCR. During the period, 732 Haemaphysalis longicornis, 62 Haemaphysalis flava, and 2 Ixodes nipponensis specimens were collected. Among the specimens of H. longicornis, the number of female adults, male adults, nymphs, and larvae were 53, 11, 240, and 446, respectively. Ticks were grouped into 63 pools according to the collection site, species, and developmental stage, and assayed for SFTS virus. None of the pools of ticks were found to be positive for SFTS virus gene.

• Korean journal of applied entomology
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• v.61 no.1
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• pp.91-100
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• 2022

Ticks are the arthropod vector capable of transmitting diverse pathogens, which include bacteria, viruses, protozoan and fungi. Ticks are able to survive under stressful environmental conditions. One of evolutionary outcomes of these obligatory hematophagous arthropods is the survival for extended periods of time without a blood meal during off-host periods. Water conservation biology and heat tolerance have allowed ticks to thrive even under high temperatures and low relative humidity, thus they have become highly successful arthropods as they are distributed globally. Tick osmoregulatory physiology is a complex mechanism, which involves multiple osmoregulatory organs (salivary glands, Malpighian tubules, hindgut and synganglion) for the acquisition and excretion of water and ions. Blood feeding and water vapor uptake have been early reported as the primary passages for ixodid tick to acquire water. Recently, we have learned that ticks can actively drink environmental water allowing hydration. The acquired water can be traced to the salivary glands (type I acini) and the midgut diverticula. This opens new avenues for tick management through the delivery of toxic agents into their drinking water, in addition to an alternative strategy for the study of tick physiology. Here we address the osmoregulatory physiology in the ixodid ticks as a potential target physiological mechanism for tick control. We discuss the implications of water drinking behavior for tick control through the delivery of toxic agents and discuss the dermal excretion physiology as an additional pathway to induce tick dehydration and tick death.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.45 no.2 s.142
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• pp.129-132
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• 2007

The geographical distribution and ecological preferences of Haemaphysalis in domestic animals in Iran were studied 4 times a year from April 2003 to March 2005. A total of 1,622 ixodid tick specimens were collected from 3 different zones. Among them, 108 (6.7%) Haemaphysalis ticks, consisting of 6 species, were identified; H. punctata (3.4%), H. parva (0.5%), H. sulcata (0.6%), H. choldokovskyi (1.7%), H. concinna (0.06%) and Haemaphysalis sp. (0.6%). H. punctata was the most abundant species, whereas H. concinna was the rarest species collected in humid and sub-humid zones on cattle, sheep and goats. H. choldokovskyi was principally collected from sheep and goats grazed in cold mountainous areas. The infested areas consisted of Caspian Sea (Guilan, Mazandaran, Golestan, and central provinces), mountainous (Azarbaiejan, Ardebil, Kohgilouyeh, and Kordestan) and semi-dessert (Khorasan, Semnan, Herman, Sistan, and Baluchestan) zones. The Caspian Sea zone (23.6%) was the most highly infested region. The results show that various species of Haemaphysalis ticks infest domestic ruminants in Iran and each tick species show characteristic geographical distributions.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.567-569
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• 1996

The studies on the prevalence of ixodid ticks during July 1991 to June 1992 in five thanas of Chittagong hilly area in Bangladesh revealed that 65.45% cattle and 44.4% goats were infested with Boophilus microplus, Rhipicephalus appendiculatus and Haemaphysallis bispinosa. Aside these, only 4.62% cattle were found infested with Amblyomma sp. The tick infestation was highest in summer and declined gradually through rainy season to lowest in winter.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.56 no.6
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• pp.589-596
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• 2018

Ticks are the vectors of various pathogens, threatening human health and animal production across the globe. Here, for the first time we detected Ricketssia spp., Borrelia spp. and protozoan in ticks from Poyang Lake region in Jiangxi Province of eastern China. In 3 habitat categories and on 12 host species, 311 ticks from 11 species were collected. Haemaphysalis longicornis was the predominant species, accounting for 55.63%, followed by Rhipicephalus microplus, Haemaphysalis flava and Ixodes granulatus. Of the collected ticks, 7.07% were positive for tick-borne pathogens, and H. longicornis and H. flava were found to be co-infected with Ricketssia spp. and protozoan. H. flava was the most detected positive for tick-borne pathogens, whereas H. longicornis had the lowest infection rate, and the difference in infection rates between tick species was significant (${\chi}^2=61.24$, P<0.001). Furthermore, adult ticks demonstrated remarkably greater infection rate than immature ticks (${\chi}^2=10.12$, P=0.018), meanwhile ticks on Erinaceidae showed significantly higher positivity than ticks collected on other host species (${\chi}^2=108.44$, P<0.001). Genetic fragment sequencing and analyses showed at least 4 pathogen species presence in ticks, namely Borrelia yangtzensis, Rickettsia slovaca or Rickettsia raoultii related genospecies, Babesia vogeli and Hepatozoon canis or Hepatozoon felis related genospecies. The finding indicates that the abundant ticks can carry diverse pathogens in Poyang Lake region, and pathogen infection is highly related to species, vertebrate hosts and life stages of ticks.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.51 no.3
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• pp.319-325
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• 2013

This study describes the seasonal distribution of larvae, nymph, and adult life stages for 3 species of ixodid ticks collected by tick drag and sweep methods from various habitats in the Republic of Korea (ROK). Grasses less than 0.5 m in height, including herbaceous and crawling vegetation, and deciduous, conifer, and mixed forests with abundant leaf/needle litter were surveyed at United States (US) and ROK operated military training sites and privately owned lands near the demilitarized zone from April-October, 2004 and 2005. Haemaphysalis longicornis Neumann adults and nymphs were more frequently collected from April-August, while those of Haemaphysalis flava Neumann and Ixodes nipponensis Kitaoka and Saito were collected more frequently from April-July and again during October. H. longicornis was the most frequently collected tick in grass habitats (98.9%), while H. flava was more frequently collected in deciduous (60.2%) and conifer (57.4%) forest habitats. While more H. flava (54.1%) were collected in mixed forest habitats than H. longicornis (35.2%), the differences were not significant. I. nipponensis was more frequently collected from conifer (mean 8.8) compared to deciduous (3.2) and mixed (2.4) forests.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.113-120
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• 1998

To investigate the distribution of Borrelia burgdorferi and human granulocytic ehrlichiosis (HGE) agent in ticks, adult ixodid ticks of Ixodes spp. and Haemaphysalis spp. were collected from the high mountain areas of Kangwon Province. Using DNAs extracted and purified in the collected ticks, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was performed to amplify the specific nucleotide sequences of both agents. Of the 516 ticks, a total of 68 (13.2%) ticks was positive for Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato with PCR analysis (2 for B. burgdorferi sensu stricto； 1 for B. afzelii；33 for B. garinii； 8 for B. tanukii；4 for B. turdae). However a little more than half of PCR-positive ticks (37/68) was found to be positive in the southern blot analysis with Bl6S oligonucleotide probe. One hundred and one (19.2%) ticks were positive for Ehrlichia spp. in PCR, and a quarter of them (25/101) was positive in southern blot with El6S oligonucleotide probe. But none of them was found to be the DNA of HGE agent. And 0.6% (3/516) ticks were positive for both of B. burgdorferi sensu late and Ehrlirhia spp. These findings might implicate the possibility of the outbreak of Iyme borreliosis and ehrlichiosis in Korea, and more extensive studies may be need for the diagnosis of multiple tick-borne diseases.