Spinose ear tick, Otobius megnini, has a worldwide distribution causing otoacariasis or parasitic otitis in animals and humans. It mainly infests horses and cattle. It is a nidicolous, one-host soft tick spread from the New World to the Old World and is now distributed across all the continents. Only the larvae and nymphs are parasitic, feeding inside the ear canal of the host for a long period. Adult males and females are free-living and nonfeeding, and mating occurs off the host. Being inside the ear canal of the host allows the tick to be distributed over a vast geographic region through the distribution of the host animals. The presence of infectious agents Coxiella burnetii, the agent of Q fever, spotted fever rickettsia, Ehrlichia canis, Borrelia burgdorferi, and Babesia in O. megnini has been reported, but its role as a vector has not been confirmed. Human infestations are mostly associated with horse riding and farming through close contacts with companion animals. Control measures involve use of acaricides, repellants, and biological control methods. However, controlling the tick population and its spread is extremely difficult due to its life cycle pattern, seasonal dynamics, and resistance to certain acaricides.
Spotted fever group (SFG) rickettsiae are obligatory intracellular bacteria that cause disease in humans and other animals. Ixodid ticks are the principal vectors of SFG rickettsiae. The present study aimed to determine the prevalence and species identity of SFG rickettsiae in ticks and horses from urban and rural areas of western Cuba using PCR assays. Tick samples, collected from 79 horses, consisted of 14 Amblyomma mixtum adults, 111 Dermacentor nitens adults and 19 pools of D. nitens nymphs (2–5 individuals/pool). The PCR results revealed the presence of Rickettsia spp. in 64% of the A. mixtum adults, 16% of the D. nitens adults, and 11% of the pooled samples of D. nitens nymphs. In contrast, Rickettsia spp. was not detected in any of the 200 horse blood samples included in this study. DNA sequence data of the rickettsial 17 kDa antigen gene showed that Rickettsia amblyommatis was present in A. mixtum; and Rickettsia felis in D. nitens. This is the first report of R. felis in D. nitens in Cuba. The present study extends our knowledge of the potential vector spectrum and distribution of SFG rickettsiae pathogens in western Cuba.
While identifying 2, 628 ticks collected from a cross sectional, island-wide survey of ticks infesting goats in Sri Lanka, one Rhipicephalus microplus specimen was found with external teratological anomalies. The observed anomaly was complete absence of right leg IV (ectromély). This is the first known case of teratological changes observed for ticks in Sri Lanka however, such anomaliies have previously been reported for R. microplus.
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