Survey for ticks on feral swine within a cattle fever tick-infested landscape in Texas, U.S.A.

Abstract

We collected ticks from feral swine, Sus scrofa L., during 1–3 September 2015, in pastures known to be infested by southern cattle ticks, Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus (Canestrini), at the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge in Cameron County, Texas, U.S.A. All 81 examined feral swine were infested by ticks, but none was infested by R. microplus. Tick species collected were Amblyomma maculatum Koch, Amblyomma mixtum Koch, Amblyomma tenellum Koch, Dermacentor halli McIntosh, and Dermaentor variabilis (Say). This is the first formal report of A. tenellum infesting feral swine.