Ticks parasitizing bats (Mammalia: Chiroptera) in the Caatinga Biome, Brazil

Abstract

In this paper, the authors report ticks parasitizing bats from the Serra das Almas Natural Reserve (RPPN) located in the municipality of Crateús, state of Ceará, in the semiarid Caatinga biome of northeastern Brazil. The study was carried out during nine nights in the dry season (July 2012) and 10 nights in the rainy season (February 2013). Only bats of the Phyllostomidae and Mormoopidae families were parasitized by ticks. The species Artibeus planirostris and Carolia perspicillata were the most parasitized. A total of 409 larvae were collected and classified into three genera: Antricola (n = 1), Nothoaspis (n = 1) and Ornithodoros (n = 407). Four species were morphologically identified as Nothoaspis amazoniensis, Ornithodoros cavernicolous, Ornithodoros fonsecai, Ornithodoros hasei, and Ornithodoros marinkellei. Ornithodoros hasei was the most common tick associated with bats in the current study. The present study expand the distributional ranges of at least three soft ticks into the Caatinga biome, and highlight an unexpected richness of argasid ticks inhabiting this arid ecosystem.

Can Bats Serve as Reservoirs for Arboviruses?

“…While neither live virus nor nucleic acid of CCHFV has been detected from bats, serologic evidence suggests past infection of populations of bats across a diverse geographic range [15,16,17]. Further, bats are often parasitized by both soft and hard ticks, which occupy a diverse range of ecological niches in endemic countries [18,19,20]. A 2016 seroprevalance study by Müller and colleagues examining 16 African bat species ( n = 1,135) found that the prevalence of antibodies against CCHFV was much higher in cave-dwelling bats (3.6%–42.9%, depending on species) than foliage-living bats (0.6%–7.1%) [15].…”

“…A number of hematophagous arthropods feed on bats, including bat flies (genera Nycteribiidae and Streblidae ), bat bugs and bed bugs (family Cimicidae ), and ticks (families Argasidae and Ixodidae ) [18,20,21,167,168,169,170,171,172]. Viruses of medical and veterinary significance have also been isolated from these arthropods [21,173,174,175].…”

Ticks from the Brazilian Amazon: Species, Distribution and Host-Relations

“…Nowadays, we know that O. hasei is a wide spread species in Brazil and that three-roosting bats Artibeus planirostris and Noctilio spp. could act as main hosts [87,[130][131][132]. With the exception of recent collection of larvae on A. planirostris [87], knowledge on the distribution of O. hasei along the Brazilian Amazon is still poorly vague.…”

Candidatus Rickettsia andeanae en Amblyomma parvum parasitando humanos en un refugio forestal de gran altitud dentro del bioma Caatinga, Brasil

“…El bioma Caatinga se refiere a los ecosistemas semiáridos del noreste de Brasil, con baja precipitación y humedad (15). En este bioma, los registros de garrapatas y sus agentes microbianos son más frecuentes en animales silvestres y domésticos, siendo escasos los asociados con humanos (11,16,17,18,19). Curiosamente, dentro del bioma Caatinga, existen áreas aisladas de bosque que se asemejan a la selva humeda tropical atlántica a mayor altitud, generalmente >400 metros sobre el nivel del mar.…”