Abstract
Ticks transmit numerous pathogens to animals including humans; therefore, they are parasites of health concern. Soft ticks infesting domestic fowl in Pakistan are carriers of viruses and bacteria and cause unestimated economic losses in the poultry sector. The current study was intended to identify soft ticks infesting domestic fowl and understand their spatiotemporal distribution along 1 year. A sum of 7,219 soft ticks were collected from 608 domestic fowl in 58 infested shelters; 938 (12.9%) ticks were found on the host and 6,281 (87%) in the shelters. The collected ticks comprised 3,503 (48.52%) adults including 1,547 (21.42%) males and 1,956 (27.09%) females, 3,238 (44.85%) nymphs, and 478 (6.62%) larvae. The most prevalent life stages were adults, followed by nymphs and larvae. Overall tick prevalence considering all visited shelters was 38.66% (58/150). The highest tick prevalence was found in district Lakki Marwat (50.03%) followed by Peshawar (31.08%) and Chitral (18.88%) districts. All ticks were morpho-taxonomically identified as Argas persicus. To determine their life cycle, adult A. persicus were reared in the laboratory infesting domestic fowl (Gallus gallus domesticus). The life cycle was completed in 113–132 days (egg to egg) with a mean temperature of 33 ± 3°C and relative humidity of 65 ± 5%. Individual ticks were used for DNA extraction and subjected to polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using specific primers for the amplification of a partial fragment of mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I (cox1) and 16S ribosomal RNA (16S rRNA) genes. Obtained amplicons were compared using basic local alignment search tool (BLAST) to scan for homologous sequences. Phylogenetic trees showed A. persicus from Pakistan clustering with conspecific sequences reported from Australia, Chile, China, Kenya, and the United States. This is the first study aiming to reproduce the life cycle of A. persicus and genetically identify this tick in the region. Further studies are encouraged to investigate the pathogens associated with this soft tick species in Pakistan.
Highlights
Soft ticks in the genus Argas are parasites associated mostly with birds
A total of 938 (12.9%) ticks were found feeding on domestic fowl, while 6,281 (87%) were collected in the shelters and crevices
A. persicus has adapted to parasitize fowl worldwide [28,29,30,31], and in the present study, we found that domestic fowl of the selected districts were highly infested by this soft tick
Summary
Sixty-one species are currently described in the genus [1, 2], and at least four are parasites of fowl, namely, Argas miniatus, Argas persicus, Argas radiatus, and Argas sanchezi [3]. Wide analyses of the geographic distribution of A. persicus in the American Continent pointed out that this soft tick occurs in dry and subtropical environments and be absent in tropical latitudes [4]. Soft ticks of the genus Argas in Pakistan are currently represented by four species only: A. persicus, Argas reflexus, Argas abdussalami, and Argas rousetti [1, 5,6,7]. As in many other geographic regions of the world, A. persicus is a frequent fowl parasite in Pakistan [5, 6, 8]
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