Report on ticks collected in the Southeast and Mid-West regions of Brazil: analyzing the potential transmission of tick-borne pathogens to man

• Main Authors: Figueiredo Luiz Tadeu Moraes, Badra Soraya Jabur, Pereira Luiz Eloy, Szabó Matias Pablo Juan
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Sociedade Brasileira de Medicina Tropical (SBMT) 1999
• Subjects: Brazilian ticks; Tick-borne pathogens; Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine; RC955-962; Arctic
• Online Access: https://doaj.org/article/1bd88b80d664482b8e19381b8bb5f3cc

Specimens of ticks were collected in 1993, 1996, 1997, and 1998, mostly from wild and domestic animals in the Southeast and Mid-West regions of Brazil. Nine species of Amblyommidae were identified: Anocentor nitens, Amblyomma cajennense, Amblyomma ovale, Amblyomma fulvum, Amblyomma striatum, Amblyomma rotundatum, Boophilus microplus, Boophilus annulatus, and Rhipicephalus sanguineus. The potential of these tick species as transmitters of pathogens to man was analyzed. A Flaviviridade Flavivirus was isolated from Amblyomma cajennense specimens collected from a sick capybara (Hydrochaeris hydrochaeris). Amblyomma cajennense is the main transmitter of Rickettsia rickettsii (=R. rickettsi), the causative agent of spotted fever in Brazil. Wild mammals, mainly capybaras and deer, infested by ticks and living in close contact with cattle, horses and dogs, offer the risk of transmission of wild zoonosis to these domestic animals and to man.