Ticks

October 17 & 18, 2017

VM 141 CLASS Entomology & Protozoology
Dr Criselda Silvestre-Battad
Lecturer
 Ticks - Introduction
• obligate ectoparasites, large mites and are arachnids,subclass Acari
• bloodsucking in all feeding stages.
• Ticks transmit a greater variety of infectious organisms of public health and
veterinary importance.
• Some of these agents are only slightly pathogenic to livestock but may cause disease
in people; others cause diseases in livestock that are of tremendous economic
importance.
• ticks can harm their hosts directly by inducing toxicosis (eg, sweating sickness, tick
paralysis caused by salivary fluids containing toxins), skin wounds susceptible to
secondary bacterial infections and screwworm infestations, and anemia and death.
• Parasitic to livestock: Argasidae, Ixodidae
• International movement of animals infected with the tick-transmitted blood
parasites Theileria, Babesia, and Anaplasma spp and Ehrlichia(Cowdria)
ruminantium is widely restricted.
•developmental stages: egg, larva, nymph, and adult.
• All larvae have three pairs of legs;
• all nymphs and adults have four.
• foreleg tarsi of all ticks bear a unique sensory
apparatus—Haller’s organ—to sense carbon dioxide, chemical
stimuli (odor), temperature, humidity, etc.
• Pheromones stimulate group assembly, species recognition, mating,
and host selection.
•Argasidae, the leathery dorsal surface lacks a hard plate
(scutum).
•Ixodidae the male dorsal surface is covered by a scutum.
• The scutum of the ixodid female, nymph, and larva covers only the anterior half of
the dorsal surface.
Argasid parasitism – 185 species
• Argas, Carios, Ornithodoros, and Otobius, - genera
• The Argasidae are highly specialized for sheltering in protected niches
or crevices in wood or rocks, or in host nests or roosts in burrows and
caves.
• Some argasid species are known to survive for several years between
feedings.
 ARGASID Life cycle
Argasid population typically parasitizes only a single kind of vertebrate and
inhabits its shelter area.
Argasids use multiple hosts, ie, the larvae feed on one host and drop to the
substrate to molt;
the several nymphal instars each feed separately, drop, and molt;
adults feed several times (but do not molt).
Argasid nymphs and adults feed rapidly (usually 30–60 min).
Larvae of some argasids also feed rapidly; others require several days to
engorge fully.
Adult argasids mate off the host several times; afterward, females deposit a
few hundred eggs in several batches and feed between ovipositions.
 Important Argasid Tick species
• Most of the 57 known Argas spp are specific for birds or bats; a few parasitize wild
terrestrial mammals or Galapagos giant tortoises.
• A persicus (the fowl or poultry tick) - important poultry pest ww in warm climates.
• A miniatus (the South American chicken tick)
• A radiatus (the North American bird tick)
• Other species that infest poultry appear to transmit both A pullorum and B anserina.
• Tick paralysis is caused by feeding A persicus, A arboreus, A walkerae, A miniatus, A
radiatus, and A sanchezi (USA)
• The species of importance in transmitting Aegyptianella pullorum and Borrelia
anserina to poultry are
• A persicus (many tropical and subtropical areas of the world),
• A arboreus (much of Africa, including Egypt), A africolumbae (tropical Africa),
• A walkerae (southern Africa), and A miniatus (South and Central America).
Most of the 88 Carios spp are species-specific parasites of bats and rodents.

• Ticks C kelleyi in North America and C vespertilionis in Europe, which in

nature feed almost exclusively on rock- and tree-roosting bats, have been
found in massive numbers in homes with associated bat colonies and have
been reported to attach to people.
• Nest parasites of colonial birds such as:
• C amblus, C capensis, and C denmarki may pose a distinct threat to breeding colonies
and are known to cause the death of chicks.
•
 Ornithodoros Species
• Most of the 37 Ornithodoros spp inhabit protected niches in
burrows, caves, dens, cliffsides, and bird colonies.
• few that parasitize livestock, O savignyi and O coriaceus are
exceptional, because they have eyes and because they rest just
below or above ground level under the shade of trees and rocks
where livestock and game animals rest and sleep.
• O savignyi, the sand tampan, lives in semiarid areas from
Namibia to India and Sri Lanka and can cause fatal tick paralysis
in calves.
• Epizootic bovine abortion, caused by an unnamed bacterium (in
the order Myxococcales), is transmitted by O coriaceus.
• O gurneyi shelters in tree-shaded soil in arid zones of Australia
where kangaroos and people rest;
Argasid tick species
Argas persicus Carrios kelleyi Ornithodoros
 Otobius megnini
• infests the ear canals of pronghorn antelope, mountain sheep, and Virginia
and mule deer in low rainfall biotopes of western USA and in Mexico and
western Canada.
• Cattle, horses, goats, sheep, dogs, and people are similarly infested.
• Females can deposit as many as 1,500 eggs in a 2-wk period. Larvae and two
nymphal instars feed for 2–4 mo, mostly in winter and spring. There can be
two or more generations per year.
• In contrast with most other ticks, the bites of O megnini are painful for the hosts.
• People and other animals may suffer severe irritation from ear canal infestations,
and heavily infested livestock lose condition during winter.
Otobius megnini
• Tick paralysis of hosts and secondary infections by larval screwworms
are reported.
• O megnini is infected by the agents of coxiellosis/Q fever, tularemia,
Colorado tick fever, and Rocky Mountain spotted fever, although its
ability to transmit these pathogens to the hosts is uncertain.
• The second Otobius sp, O lagophilus, feeds on the heads of
jackrabbits (hares) and rabbits in western USA
 Important Ixodid ticks (12)
•Amblyomma spp, •Ixodes spp,
•Anomalohimalaya spp, •Margaropus spp,
•Bothriocroton spp, •Nosomma sp,
•Cosmiomma sp, •Rhipicentor spp,
•Dermacentor spp, Rhipicephalus sp
•Haemaphysalis spp,
•Hyalomma spp, http://www.merckvetmanual.com/integumentary-system
/ticks/important-ixodid-ticks
 Three-host
Ixodids:
• Most ixodids have a three-host cycle.
• The recently hatched larvae quest for a suitable host, usually from vegetation, feed for
several days, drop, and molt to nymphs, which repeat these activities and molt to adults.
• Of the three-host species that parasitize livestock or dogs, a few have immatures and adults
that parasitize the same kind of host;
• these often develop tremendous population densities.
• The success of ixodid species that require smaller-size hosts for immatures depends
on the availability of those hosts in the livestock browsing and grazing grounds.
• The natural hazards inherent in the three-host cycle have been compensated for by
the benefits afforded adaptable tick species by animal husbandry practices.
• Only certain ixodids specific for herbivores have adapted to coexistence with
livestock, and therein lies the answer to numerous livestock tick problems in Africa,
where hosts for adults and immatures are abundant.
 Two-host Ixodids:
• Some ixodids, especially those that parasitize wandering mammals (and
also birds in certain cases) in inclement environments of the Old World,
• have developed a two-host cycle in which larvae and nymphs feed on one
host, and adults on another.
• As in three-host species, both hosts may be different or may be the same
species.
• Two-host parasites of livestock thrive in both inclement and clement
environments and are difficult to control.
• This is especially true of two-host species that feed in the ears and anal
areas of livestock.
 One-host Ixodids:
•Among the most economically important ticks are several
one-host species.
• These parasites evolved together with herbivores that wandered
in extensive ranges in the tropics
•(Rhipicephalus [Boophilus] spp, Dermacentor nitens, etc)
•or in temperate zones
• (D albipictus, Hyalomma scupense).
•Larvae, nymphs, and adults feed on a single animal until the
mated, replete females drop to the ground to oviposit.
 Feeding Sites:
• Each species has one or more favored feeding sites on the host,
• although in dense infestations, other areas of the host may be used.
• Some feed chiefly on the head, neck, shoulders, and escutcheon;
• others in the ears; others around the anus and under the tail; and some in the nasal
passages.
• Other common feeding sites are the axillae, udder, male genitalia, and tail
brush.
• Immatures and adults often have different preferred feeding sites.
• Attachment of the large, irritating Amblyomma spp is regulated by a
male-produced aggregation-attachment pheromone,
• which ensures that the ticks attach at sites least vulnerable to grooming.
 Amblyomma – 140 species
• Amblyomma species - endemic to the New World, three-host parasites.
• They have eyes and long, robust mouthparts -difficult to remove manually and
frequently cause serious wounds that may become secondarily infected by bacteria or
screwworms and other myiasis flies.
• They are more or less brightly ornamented and generally confined to the tropics and
subtropics.
• Adults and immatures of 37 species in this genus parasitize reptiles, which
together with ground-feeding birds, are often hosts of
immature Amblyomma ticks that have adapted,
• in the adult stage, to parasitizing mammals.
 Amblyomma species & diseases
• Several African Amblyomma that infest livestock are vectors of Ehrlichia
(Cowdria) ruminantium, the rickettsial agent that causes heartwater,
• New World Amblyomma spp carry agents of monocytic and granulocytic
ehrlichioses as well as several Rickettsia spp, including R rickettsii, the agent
of Rocky Mountain spotted fever.
• A americanum is a vector of Francisella tularensis, the etiologic agent of
tularemia; Ehrlichia chaffeensis, which causes monocytic ehrlichiosis in
people; E ewingii, which causes granulocytic ehrlichiosis in dogs and people;
• A cajennense, is a vector of R rickettsii in Central and South America from
Panama to Argentina
Amblyomma species & diseases
• A maculatum, the Gulf Coast tick, is an important pest of livestock,
particularly cattle, from South America to southern USA.
• Immatures usually parasitize birds and small mammals;
• adults parasitize deer, cattle, horses, sheep, pigs, and dogs.
• Most adults infest the ears, where the feeding wounds are initial sites
of screwworm infestations.
• A maculatum is the primary vector of R parkeri, and in some tick
populations as many as 50% of individual ticks may be infected with
this pathogen.
Anomalohimalaya spp
•The three Anomalohimalaya spp are found in mountains of
Central Asia—Pamir, Tian Shan, Tibet, and Himalayas.
•All stages of these three-host ticks parasitize rodents,
shrews, and less frequently hares.
 Genus Bothriocroton (formerly Aponomma)
• includes seven species of ticks indigenous to Australia and Papua New
Guinea (B oudemansi). Bothriocroton spp resemble Amblyomma spp
except they have no eyes.
• In this group, B aruginans is a parasite of wombats;
• B concolor and B oudemansi are ectoparasites of echidnas in Australia
and Papua New Guinea, respectively.
• The other four species in this genus parasitize reptiles almost
exclusively.
• B hydrosauri, the blue-tongued lizard tick, is the reservoir of Rickettsia
honei on Flinders Island, Australia.
Cosmiomma sp
•Genus Cosmiomma contains a single species, C
hippopotamensis,
•which is found in southwestern and eastern Africa.
•It feeds primarily on white and black rhinoceroses and less
frequently on antelopes.
 Dermacentor

• Of the tropical species, D (Anocenter) nitens is of major veterinary

importance,
• although others may transmit zoonotic infections, and adults may be common on
wildlife such as pigs, deer, and antelope.
• Immatures infest chiefly rodents and lagomorphs.
• Dermacentor spp in cold areas and D nitens in tropical America have
specialized life cycles and seasonal dynamics of activity, each of which must
be considered separately.
• Except for D nitens, D albipictus, and D dissimilis, the Dermacentor life cycle is of the
typical three-host pattern.
•D nitens, the one-host tropical horse tick, is of considerable
veterinary importance.
•It originally parasitized deer (Mazama) in the forests of
northern South America.
• Spending its entire parasitic life deep in the hosts’ ears,
•In addition to ear cavities, each active stage may infest nasal
passages and the mane, ventral abdomen, and perianal area.
• D nitens transmits Babesia caballi transovarially to successive
generations and is important in the horse-racing industry.
•It also is an experimental vector of Anaplasma marginale to
cattle.
 D. albipictus
• Another American one-host species, D albipictus, the winter or moose tick,
ranges from Canada and northern USA into western USA and Mexico.
• A brownish form, sometimes called D nigrolineatus, is distributed from
New Mexico to southern and eastern USA and may merit subspecies, if
not full-species, rank.
• The larval-nymphal-adult feeding period on a single host (moose, deer,
elk, or domestic cattle or horses) extends from fall to spring. Heavily
infested hosts may die.
• D albipictus causes the often fatal “phantom moose disease” of
Canada,
• is a secondary vector of Colorado tick fever virus,
• and is an experimental vector of B caballi; it is a natural vector of A
marginale in Oklahoma.
 Haemaphysalis spp- 166
• Few Haemaphysalis parasitize livestock, but those that do are economically
important in Eurasia, Africa, Australia, and New Zealand.
• Some haemaphysaline parasites of wild deer, antelope, and cattle have adapted to
domestic cattle and, to a lesser extent, to sheep and goats..
• All Haemaphysalis spp have a three-host life cycle.
• They are small (unfed adults <4.5 mm long), brownish or reddish, and eyeless.
• Different species cause tick paralysis and are vectors of the agents that
cause coxiellosis/Q fever, tularemia, and brucellosis, and of Theileria
orientalis, T ovis, Babesia major, B motasi, B canis, Anaplasma mesaeterum,
etc.
• H punctata, the red sheep tick, is widely distributed where sheep, goats, and cattle
• H sulcata adults parasitize livestock (chiefly sheep and goats)
• H longicornis is a parasite of deer and livestock in Japan and northeast Asia; there is
a bisexual form (race) in southern areas and a parthenogenetic race in northern
areas
 Hyalomma spp
• Hyalomma ticks are often the most abundant tick parasites of livestock,
including camels, in warm, arid, and semiarid, generally harsh lowland and
middle altitude biotopes, and those with long dry seasons,
• The three-host life cycle predominates in this genus, but some species have either a
one- or two-host cycle.
• subgenus Hyalommasta, immatures of the single species, H aegyptium,
parasitize tortoises and small wildlife and livestock from Pakistan to both
sides of the Mediterranean basin. Adults are specific for tortoises.
• subgenus Hyalommina is found on the Indian subcontinent and in Somalia.
Each of the six species has a three-host cycle.
• Immatures parasitize small mammals, especially rodents.
• Adult host preferences among livestock reflect the wild gazelle, bovine, caprine, or
ovine group
 Ixodes spp, largest genus of the family Ixodidae,
• The I ricinus group of Eurasia, northwestern Africa, and North and South
America, its life cycle is 2–4 yr, depending on environmental temperature.
• (In drier, warmer, eastern Mediterranean biotopes, I ricinus is replaced
by I gibbosus, which completes its life cycle in 1 yr.)
• I ricinus larvae feed on small reptiles, birds, and mammals.
• Nymphs feed on small and medium-sized vertebrates, and adults feed chiefly on
herbivores and livestock.
• I persulcatus, the taiga tick, is closely related to I ricinus and has similar
host preferences.
• It ranges from the central and eastern mountains of Europe, completed in 3–4 yr
but can last up to 7 yr in regions with a short summer season.
• main vectors of Russian spring-summer encephalitis virus and Borrelia burgdorferi.
In addition, it transmits Babesia spp, Ehrlichia muris, and the agents of human and
ovine anaplasmoses and tularemia.
 Margaropus spp
• Ticks of the genus Margaropus resemble Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) ticks but
do not have festoons or ornamentations.
• They are characterized by greatly enlarged posterior legs and a prolonged
median plate.
• The three highly specialized beady-legged, one-host Margaropus spp are
restricted to limited areas of Africa.
• M reidi and M wileyi are recorded from giraffes in the Sudan and in Kenya
and Tanzania, respectively.
• M wileyi is also known to parasitize zebras and gnu. M winthemi, a
winter-feeding parasite of zebras, horses, and less often other livestock and
antelope,
• is confined to mountains of South Africa and may contribute to loss of condition
during winter.
Nosomma sp
• Adults of the single species in this genus, N monstrosum,
• particularly parasitize wild and domestic buffalo, and also people,
livestock, and wildlife,
• through much of India, Nepalese lowlands, Bangladesh, Thailand, and
Laos.
• Immatures parasitize chiefly murid rodents.
Rhipicentor spp
• The genus Rhipicentor is composed of two species,
• namely R bicornis and R nuttalli, and both are found only in Africa south of
the Sahara.
• R bicornis feeds on goats, cattle, horses, dogs, and carnivores in
southern and central Africa. R nuttalli has a widespread distribution
in South Africa.
• Immature stages feed on elephant shrews.
• The preferred hosts of the adults are domestic dogs, leopards, and
South African hedgehogs.
• The life cycle of these ticks probably takes a year to complete in the
field
 Rhipicephalus spp
• R sanguineus and R (Boophilus) microplus being spread by human activities
into Asia, Australia, and the Americas.
• Adults of most species parasitize wild and domestic artiodactyls, perissodactyls, or
carnivores.
• Immatures feed mostly on smaller mammals; however, of those that parasitize
rodents or hyraxes, and of those that parasitize artiodactyls, a few feed on the same
host as the adults.
• The rhipicephalid life cycle is typically three-host,
• but in the Mediterranean climatic zone (long, warm summer with low
rainfall) R bursa has a two-host cycle.
• In sub-Saharan Africa with long dry seasons, R evertsi and R
glabroscutatum also have two-host cycles.
• In contrast, each of the five species in subgenus Boophilus has a one-host
life cycle that may be completed in 3–4 wk