Ticks associated with the three largest wild ruminant species in Southern Africa

I.G Horak,H Golezardy,A.C Uys

doi:10.4102/ojvr.v74i3.126

Abstract

The objective of this study was to assess the host status of the three largest southern African wild ruminants, namely giraffes, Giraffa camelopardalis, African buffaloes, Syncerus caffer, and eland, Taurotragus oryx for ixodid ticks. To this end recently acquired unpublished data are added here to already published findings on the tick burdens of these animals, and the total numbers and species of ticks recorded on 12 giraffes, 18 buffaloes and 36 eland are summarized and discussed. Twenty-eight ixodid tick species were recovered. All stages of development of ten species, namely Amblyomma hebraeum, Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) decoloratus, Haemaphysalis silacea, Ixodes pilosus group, Margaropus winthemi, Rhipicephalus appendiculatus, Rhipicephalus evertsi evertsi, Rhipicephalus glabroscutatum, Rhipicephalus maculatus and Rhipicephalus muehlensi were collected. The adults of 13 species, of which the immature stages use small mammals as hosts, namely Haemaphysalis aciculifer, Hyalomma glabrum, Hyalomma marginatum rufipes, Hyalomma truncatum, Ixodes rubicundus, Rhipicephalus capensis, Rhipicephalus exophthalmos, Rhipicephalus follis, Rhipicephalus gertrudae, Rhipicephalus lounsburyi, Rhipicephalus lunulatus, Rhipicephalus pravus group and Rhipicephalus simus, were also collected.

Highlights

Numerous collections of ticks have been made from giraffes, Giraffa camelopardalis, African buffaloes, Syncerus caffer and eland, Taurotragus
Ticks associated with largest wild ruminant species in southern Africa ple more of these large herbivores has arisen and the present paper reports the results of the latter collections
Since we thought it unlikely that, in the near future, similar exhaustive tick collections would be made from such large animals in southern Africa, we decided to combine the earlier published data with the more recent findings in order to give a more comprehensive overview of the numbers and species of ticks that may infest giraffes, African buffaloes and eland in a variety of habitats

Summary

Introduction

Accepted for publication 23 March 2007—Editor oryx (Theiler 1962; Yeoman & Walker 1967; Baker & Keep 1970; Walker 1974; Norval 1983), it would seem that few attempts have been made to determine the total tick burdens of these large animals This is perhaps not surprising considering the amount of assistance required to collect ticks from dead or immobilized animals of this size, and the time that has to be spent identifying and counting immature ticks in representative samples of these collections and often all the several thousand adult ticks that a single large herbivore may harbour. Giraffes occur in several associations of dry savanna, varying from scrub to woodland They do not occur in forest or desert and generally are not found in open plains. They are present in north-eastern Limpopo and Mpumalanga Provinces, South Africa, and in the north-eastern parts of Namibia (Skinner & Smithers 1990), but in recent times have been introduced into a number of regions in South Africa in which they previously did not occur

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