Ornithodoros erraticus

Description

The tick is native to the Middle East and Mediterranean. It is one of the more common soft ticks to bite humans. Their main food sources in Spain are pigs; the tick has been found in pig pens in the provinces of Salamanca, Badajoz, and Huelva. The only human habitats the tick can enter are places in poor condition.

Pathology

This species carries the pathogenic Qalyub and African swine fever viruses and the spirochetes Borrelia crocidurae and Borrelia hispanica. When the tick is infected by B. crocidurae, the disease affects its genetic organ, the testes in males and the ovaries in females. The tick transmits the African swine fever virus only in Spain and Portugal.

The tick feeds at night, ingesting blood to repletion in about 15 minutes. Small mammals are the most common hosts; this species rarely bites humans, preferring other vertebrates. The tick has substances in its saliva, such as antihemostatic, anti-inflammatory, and immunomodulatory molecules, which help the tick get blood from the host and transfer pathogens easily. Major factors in their feeding relationship are mating, recent feeding, and size.

Some strains of entomopathogenic fungi have been found to be effective against this tick and others in the related genus Ornithodoros in a study which concluded the fungi could be used as biocontrol agents for argasid ticks; the name of this is called hyperparasitism.

References

References

1. Carios erraticus Lucas, 1849 in GBIF Secretariat (2016). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist Dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via https://www.gbif.org/species/2184504 {{Webarchive. link. (2017-10-02 on 2017-10-02.)
2. Nijhof A.M., Guglielmone A.A. & Horak I.G. (2017). TicksBase (version 5.6, Jun 2005). In: Roskov Y., Abucay L., Orrell T., Nicolson D., Bailly N., Kirk P.M., Bourgoin T., DeWalt R.E., Decock W., De Wever A., Nieukerken E. van, Zarucchi J., Penev L., eds. (2017). Species 2000 & ITIS Catalogue of Life, 29 September 2017. Digital resource at http://www.catalogueoflife.org/col/details/species/id/4e7795c13f4daacac24b26026b35939f {{Webarchive. link. (2017-10-02 . Species 2000: Naturalis, Leiden, the Netherlands. ISSN 2405-8858.)
3. Hallan, Joel. (24 March 2008). "Argasidae". Texas A&M University Department of Entomology.
4. Mans, Ben J.. (2019-01-01). "Argasid and ixodid systematics: Implications for soft tick evolution and systematics, with a new argasid species list". Ticks and Tick-borne Diseases.
5. (September 1999). "Ticks feeding on humans: a review of records on human-biting Ixodoidea with special reference to pathogen transmission". Experimental and Applied Acarology.
6. (1990). "Distribution and biology of Ornithodoros erraticus in parts of Spain affected by African swine fever". The Veterinary Record.
7. National Research Council (U.S.). Division of Medical Sciences. (1962). "Tropical health: a report on a study of needs and resources". National Academies.
8. (1990). "Applied Virology Research, Volume 2: Virus Variability, Epidemiology, and Control". Plenum Publishing Corporation.
9. (2009). "Medical and Veterinary Entomology". Academic Press.
10. (2004). "Textbook of pediatric infectious diseases, Volume 2". Elsevier Health Sciences.
11. (November 2007). "A proteomic approach to the identification of salivary proteins from the argasid ticks Ornithodoros moubata and Ornithodoros erraticus (2007)". Insect Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.
12. (2008-12-20). "Pathogenicity of endophytic entomopathogenic fungi to Ornithodoros erraticus and Ornithodoros moubata (Acari: Argasidae)". Veterinary Parasitology.
13. (February 1983). "Hyperparasitism in ''Ornithodoros erraticus''". Journal of Parasitology.