Ixodes spp - The Merck Veterinary Manual

Ixodes spp

Ixodes ricinus

This, the largest genus of the family Ixodidae, contains ~220 species and is highly specialized both structurally and biologically. So far as is known, all Ixodes spp have a 3-host life cycle. Almost all inhabit temperate or tropical forest zones or wooded or shrubby grasslands; fewer are adapted to humid areas in semideserts or to arctic or subantarctic nesting colonies of marine birds. Hosts are a wide variety of birds and mammals and a few reptiles. Most species parasitize burrowing hosts or those that return regularly to caves, dens, or terrestrial or arboreal nesting colonies. The few Ixodes spp that parasitize wandering artiodactyls or perissodactyls are exceptionally adaptable; they also parasitize livestock and are important pests or vectors of agents that infect livestock and humans.

The I ricinus group of Eurasia, northwestern Africa, and North and South America is especially important. I ricinus , the so-called sheep tick and prototype of this group, inhabits relatively humid, cool, shrubby and wooded pastures, gardens, windbreaks, floodplains, and forest through much of Europe to the Caspian Sea and northern Iran, and also northwestern Africa. 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. All stages, especially nymphs and adults, parasitize humans. Male I ricinus take little or no food but mate on the host while the female feeds. If I ricinus is like other campestral species in the genus, unfed adults often mate while on vegetation. Adult activity peaks in spring; in some populations, there is a lower peak of adult activity in the fall. Chief among the numerous arboviral diseases transmitted by I ricinus are louping ill, tickborne encephalitis, and Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever. Other agents transmitted to livestock are Coxiella burnetii , Anaplasma marginale , Babesia divergens , and Anaplasma phagocytophilum .

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 through the lowland forests from the Baltic Sea and Karelia eastward through the Siberian taiga to the Seas of Japan and Okhotsk and the northern islands of Japan. The life cycle is completed in 2-4 yr. It is the chief vector of Russian spring-summer encephalitis virus, and it transmits Babesia spp and the agents of ovine anaplasmosis and tularemia.

Other Asian representatives of the I ricinus group are I sinensis of China; I kashmiricus of mountainous northern India, Pakistan, and Kyrgyzstan; I pavlovskyi of southern Siberian mountains of Russia; and I kazakstani of mountain taiga and deciduous forest in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Turkmenistan.

Ixodes scapularis

I scapularis (also a member of the I ricinus group) is a vector of Borrelia burgdorferi , the agent of Lyme disease in northeastern and north central USA and Southern Canada; it is also a vector of Babesia microti , the agent of human babesiosis in coastal areas from New York to Massachusetts. This tick also is a vector of human granulocytic ehrlichiosis. The chief hosts of adult I scapularis are deer; livestock seldom graze in the wooded zones inhabited by this tick. Adults of I pacificus parasitize livestock from Baja California to British Columbia and in inland pockets of Idaho, Nevada, and Oregon. I pacificus and I neotomae transmit the agents of Lyme disease, tularemia, and a rickettsia of the Rocky Mountain spotted fever group; I pacificus also transmits Ehrlichia equi , causing granulocytic ehrlichiosis in horses. The tick bites cause slowly healing ulcers. A related species, I affinis , ranges from South Carolina and Florida to Argentina. It is recorded chiefly from wildlife and has not been shown to be a vector.

In Africa, only 4 Ixodes spp have adapted to livestock. Chief among these is the South African paralysis tick, I rubicundus , of humid hill and mountain karoo vegetation in South Africa. Its salivary toxins cause a flaccid tetraplegia in livestock, humans, dogs, and jackals. Immatures parasitize the rock hare, other hares, and elephant shrews. Other parasites of livestock in African highlands are I drakenbergensis (Natal), I lewisi (Kenya), and I cavipalpus (southern Sudan to Zimbabwe and Angola).