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Ticks are important vectors of emerging zoonotic diseases. While adults ofmany tick species parasitize mammals, immature ticks are often found on wildbirds. In the tropics, difficulties in species-level identification of immatureticks hinder studies of tick ecology and tick-borne disease transmission,including any potential role for birds. In Panama, we found immature ticks on227 out of 3,498 birds representing 93 host species, about 1/8th of the entirePanamanian terrestrial avifauna. Tick parasitism rates did not vary withtemperature or rainfall, but parasitism rates did vary with host ecologicaltraits: non-migratory residents, forest dwelling birds, bark insectivores,terrestrial foragers and lowland species were most likely to be infested withticks. Using a molecular library developed from adult ticks specifically forthis study, we identified 130 immature ticks obtained from wild birds,corresponding to eleven tick species, indicating that a substantial portion ofthe Panamanian avifauna is parasitized by a variety of tick species.Furthermore, we found evidence that immature ticks show taxonomic or ecologicalspecificity to avian hosts. Finally, our data indicate that Panamanian birdsare not parasitized regularly by the tick species responsible for most knowntick-borne diseases. However, they are frequent hosts of other tick speciesknown to carry a variety of rickettsial parasites of unknown pathogenicity.Given the broad interaction between tick and avian biodiversity in theNeotropics, future work on emerging tropical tick-borne disease shouldexplicitly consider wild birds as vertebrate hosts.

Molecular insights into Neotropical bird-tick ecological associations and the role of birds in tick-borne disease ecology