Distribution of Ixodidae ticks in Sicily
2011
Di Marco, V. | Caracappa, S. | Scimeca, S., Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale della Sicilia, Palermo (Italy). National Centre of Reference for Anaplasma, Babesia, Rickettsia and Theileria | Alongi, A. | D`Agostino, R. | Torina, A.
Ticks are one of the major constrain on livestock production being responsible for the transmission of pathogens such as Babesia and Theileria (Papadopoulos et al., 1996; Jongejan 1999). A number of spotted fever group Rickettsiae is associated with ticks and these pathogens are enabled both transovarial and transstadial transmission. The main hosts are ticks of Dermacentor, Rhipicephalus, Haemaphzsalis and Ixodes genera. In order to obtain a control of the tick borne diseases (TBDs) is important to know the incidence and the prvalence of tick species involved in transmission and their geographic distribution (Torina et al., 2006). This note reports the results of a ten years survey (2000-2010) aimed to study parasitation level and species prevalence of ticks infesting livestock in Sicily. The results of our work show that species belonging to Rhipicephalus genus were prevalent in all the hosts and habitat monitored. Among the species recorded, Hy. lusitanicum (32.41%) was found to be the most abundant on cattle, Rh. turanicus (43.06%) on free-living ticks and Rh. bursa on sheep (52.87%) and goat (39.58%). In overall, among the other species identified, D.marginatum, Haem. punctata, Hy. marginatum and Rh. sanguineus showed significant values, while B. annulatus, hae. sulcata and I. ricinus were represented by a very low prevalence.
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