Premium
A cross‐sectional study of hard ticks (acari: ixodidae) on horse farms to assess the risk factors associated with tick‐borne diseases
Author(s) -
Kamran Kashif,
Ali Abid,
Villagra Cristian,
Siddiqui Saima,
Alouffi Abdulaziz S.,
Iqbal Asim
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
zoonoses and public health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.87
H-Index - 65
eISSN - 1863-2378
pISSN - 1863-1959
DOI - 10.1111/zph.12809
Subject(s) - tick borne disease , tick , ixodidae , biology , transmission (telecommunications) , environmental health , vector (molecular biology) , public health , acari , veterinary public health , veterinary medicine , livestock , zoology , virology , ecology , medicine , recombinant dna , biochemistry , nursing , gene , electrical engineering , engineering
Zoonotic diseases are significant public health issues. There is an urgent need to focus our efforts on the development of strategies that prevent and control potential arthropod vector‐borne pathogens. Hard ticks transmit a variety of viral, bacterial and protozoan pathogens to their vertebrate hosts. This is becoming of more concern, as anthropogenic alterations of the environment may unleash the spread of tick‐borne diseases throughout the world. Developing countries that are highly dependent on the livestock economy are a hot spot for tick‐borne infectious diseases. In this work, through a cross‐sectional approach that included a bibliographic survey, field collection and epidemiological questionnaire, we identified five tick species that were found to parasitize equines and transmit tick‐borne pathogens. Our data revealed a gap in fundamental knowledge of ticks and tick‐borne infectious diseases among equine breeders and owners. This article highlights the relevant risk factors that were found and the urgent actions that are needed to prevent the wide spread of hard ticks and their associated zoonotic diseases.