Hyalomma rufipes on an untraveled horse: Is this the first evidence of Hyalomma nymphs successfully moulting in the United Kingdom?

Publication date: Available online 9 March 2019Source: Ticks and Tick-borne DiseasesAuthor(s): Kayleigh M. Hansford, Daniel Carter, Emma L. Gillingham, Luis M. Hernandez-Triana, John Chamberlain, Benjamin Cull, Liz McGinley, L. Paul Phipps, Jolyon M. MedlockAbstractDuring September 2018, a tick was submitted to Public Health England’s Tick Surveillance Scheme for identification. The tick was sent from a veterinarian who removed it from a horse in Dorset, England, with no history of overseas travel. The tick was identified as a male Hyalomma rufipes using morphological and molecular methods and then tested for a range of tick-borne pathogens including; Alkhurma virus, Anaplasma, Babesia, Bhanja virus, Crimean-Congo Haemorrhagic fever virus, Rickettsia and Theileria. The tick tested positive for Rickettsia aeschlimannii, a spotted fever group rickettsia linked to a number of human cases in Africa and Europe. This is the first time H. rufipes has been reported in the United Kingdom (UK), and the lack of travel by the horse (or any in-contact horses) suggests that this could also be the first evidence of successful moulting of a Hyalomma nymph in the UK. It is postulated that the tick was imported into the UK on a migratory bird as an engorged nymph which was able to complete its moult to the adult stage and find a host. This highlights that passive tick surveillance remains an important method for the detection of unusual species that may present a threat to public health in t...
Source: Ticks and Tick borne Diseases - Category: Zoology Source Type: research