Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2019
Abstract
The southern cattle fever tick, Rhipicephalus microplus, is a livestock pest worldwide, including South Texas, and can vector Babesia spp.; the causal agents of bovine babesiosis. Its congener, the brown dog tick, Rhipicephalus sanguineus, is also common worldwide and is frequently parasitized by a wasp, Ixodiphagus hookeri. To better understand the life history and host location cues of parasitic wasps of ticks, which supports the cattle fever tick eradication program for R. microplus, we examined the incidence of R. sanguineus and its parasitoid I. hookeri. Dogs in Hidalgo County, TX were observed (n=624) from Oct 2018 to April 2019. Our results show that the sampled dogs had very low levels of R. sanguineus (1.89%) with 219 nymphs, and no parasitoids were recovered. We also found that R. sanguineus nymph incidence is significantly higher on female dogs and puppies than other classes of dogs.
Recommended Citation
Vasquez, A., Goolsby, J., Vacek, A., Racelis, A., & Kariyat, R. (2019). Incidence of the Brown dog tick, Rhipicephalus sanguineus and its parasitoid, Ixodiphagus hookeri on dogs in South Texas. Subtropical Agriculture and Environments, 70, 6–10. https://scholarworks.utrgv.edu/bio_fac/22
First Page
6
Last Page
10
Publication Title
Subtropical Agriculture and Environments
Comments
Original published version available at http://www.subplantsci.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/SAES-Goolsby-et-al.-2019-2-POST-1.pdf