Ticks (Acari: Ixodidae) infesting wild birds in the Atlantic Forest in northeastern Brazil, with notes on rickettsial infection in ticks.
A total of 232 individuals representing 46 species of birds were mist-netted and screened for ticks in a region of the Atlantic Forest, State of Bahia, Brazil. Thirty-eight (16.4%) of these birds representing 17 species were found infested by immature stages of Amblyomma ticks, namely, Amblyomma longirostre (Koch, 1844) (15 larvae and seven nymphs), Amblyomma nodosum (Neumann, 1899) (nine nymphs), Amblyomma calcaratum (Neumann, 1899) (five nymphs), Amblyomma cajennense (Fabricius, 1787) (seven larvae), and Amblyomma parkeri (Fonseca and Aragão, 1952) (four larvae). Overall, 21 larvae and five nymphs collected from birds could not be identified to species and were morphologically identified as Amblyomma spp. Among 13 A. longirostre larvae and two A. parkeri larvae, two individuals of A. longirostre (15.4%) were found infected by Rickettsia amblyommii. This study provides some bird species found infested by A. longirostre, A. parkeri, A. calcaratum, A. nodosum, or A. cajennense for the first time and expands the distribution of R. amblyommii-infected A. longirostre ticks.
Departamento de Medicina Veterinaria Preventiva e Saude Animal, Faculdade de Medicina Veterinaria e Zootenia, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, São Paulo 05508-270, Brazil. mogrzewalska@gmail.com
Maria
M
Ogrzewalska
Alexandre
A
Uezu
Marcelo B
MB
Labruna
D000818:Animals; D000835:Animals, Wild; D001425:Bacterial Outer Membrane Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D001715:Bird Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology*; D001717:Birds; D001938:Brazil / Q000453:epidemiology; D026863:Ixodidae / Q000145:classification / Q000382:microbiology*; D007814:Larva / Q000145:classification; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009758:Nymph / Q000145:classification; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D015995:Prevalence; D012281:Rickettsia / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000472:pathogenicity; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D013984:Tick Infestations / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000662:veterinary*
D001425:Bacterial Outer Membrane Proteins; D001426:Bacterial Proteins; C078167:OMPA outer membrane proteins