Experimental and Applied Acarology (2018) 74, 107-116

María N. Saracho-Bottero, Evelina L. Tarragona, Patrick S. Sebastian, José M. Venzal, Atilio J. Mangold, Alberto A. Guglielmone and Santiago Nava (2018)
Ticks infesting cattle and humans in the Yungas Biogeographic Province of Argentina, with notes on the presence of tick-borne bacteria
Experimental and Applied Acarology 74 (1), 107-116
Abstract: This study was performed to determine the tick species that infest cattle and humans throughout an altitudinal gradient in the Yungas Biogeographic Province of Argentina. The presence of tick-borne bacteria of the genera Rickettsia, Ehrlichia and Borrelia in the collected ticks was also evaluated. Samples of ticks parasitizing cattle and humans were carried out in different seasons. Questing ticks (adults and nymphs) were collected from vegetation and analyzed to detect the presence of Rickettsia, Ehrlichia and Borrelia by a battery of different PCRs. Five species of hard ticks were found parasitizing cattle: Amblyomma sculptum, Amblyomma tonelliae, Amblyomma hadanii, Haemaphysalis juxtakochi and Ixodes pararicinus. Amblyomma sculptum (immature and adults), A. tonelliae (immature and adults), A. hadanii (larvae) and one nymph of I. pararicinus were found attached to humans. Rickettsia amblyommatis was detected in one nymph of A. hadanii. DNA of a Borrelia genospecies belonging to the B. burgdorferi s.l. complex (phylogenetically related to haplotypes previously reported in Ixodes aragaoi from Uruguay and I. pararicinus from Argentina) was detected in adults of I. pararicinus. Amblyomma sculptum and I. pararicinus appear to be the tick species more frequent on cattle in the YBP from Argentina, and A. sculptum and A. tonelliae, were the main ticks found attached to humans. The medical importance of the bacteria of the genus Rickettsia and Borrelia detected in this work remains unknown.
(The abstract is excluded from the Creative Commons licence and has been copied with permission by the publisher.)
Link to article at publishers website
Database assignments for author(s): Alberto Alejandro Guglielmone

Research topic(s) for pests/diseases/weeds:
surveys/sampling/distribution
general biology - morphology - evolution

---

Pest and/or beneficial records:

Beneficial	Pest/Disease/Weed	Crop/Product	Country	Quarant.
	Ixodes pararicinus		Argentina
	Haemaphysalis juxtakochi		Argentina
	Amblyomma tonelliae		Argentina
	Amblyomma sculptum		Argentina
	Amblyomma hadanii		Argentina