Ticks in Livestock Species in Tunisia

Ticks are the biggest group of Acari, a taxon of arachnids that contains mites and ticks. All are haematophagous ectoparasites of wild and domestic animals, that is they feed on blood. Ticks transmit numerous pathogens, including parasites, viruses, and bacteria. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates global losses due to ticks and tick-borne infections at US$7000 million a year.

Worldwide there are 866 species of ticks. Eighteen of these species, belonging to five genera, Hyalomma, Rhipicephalus (and Boophilus), Haemaphysalis, Ixodes, and Dermacentor, infest domestic animals in Tunisia and occur in all bioclimatic zones.

The Ticks in Livestock Species in Tunisia online database was developed by ICARDA and the National School of Veterinary Medicine of Sidi Thabet, Tunisia. The database compiles all the available data relating to ticks in Tunisia (localities, GPS coordinates, bioclimatic zones, host species, co-infections). Users of the database (researchers in universities and research centers, undergraduate and postgraduate students, field veterinarians and animal health decision makers) can follow links to original papers and datasets on journal websites. Freely downloadable photos of the main tick species, and links to journals and websites with information on ticks and tick-borne diseases, are also available.

In its current version, the database captures studies performed in Tunisia but will attract the interest of scientists in other regions of the world with similar agro-ecological environments where the species that occur in Tunisia are also present. Ticks and tick-borne infections are of particular interest in Tunisia as it is on one of the three routes taken by birds migrating from Africa to the Eurasian region and vice-versa. Migrating birds can transport new tick species and exotic pathogens from one continent to another. Tunisia also has permeable borders with Libya and Algeria, which have common borders with sub-Saharan countries. Thus, Tunisia represents an ‘epidemiological bridge’ between sub-Saharan countries and the Eurasian region. As such, transboundary movement of livestock that may carry disease vectors presents a real threat. The database contains a number of instances of movement of disease vectors across boundaries. For example, the tick-borne piroplasm Theileria lestoquardi infecting small ruminants in the southern part of Tunisia is known to occur exclusively in sub-Saharan countries, leading to the suspicion that it was introduced with sheep and goats from infected regions.


District:
Year: 1935       2017

ID Surname Name Co-authors Authors Title (English) Title (French) Keywords DOI/URL Journal Year Type Abstract (English) Abstract (French)

Hyalomma scupense

Hosts and geographic distribution: It parasitize mainly cattle, this species is present in Northern Tunisia and in the sub-humid, humid and semi-arid regions. Small numbers were collected from Sidi Bouzid, Sfax and Gabes Districts.

Life cycle and activity dynamics: It is an endophilic, one host tick. All stages occur on cattle housed in farms with crevasses and cracks. Adults have a summer activity (from May to August) with a peak in July. Nymphs are active between September and November. The preferential attachment sites of adults are regions with thin skin such as posterior udder quarters.


Hyalomma scupense

Hyalomma dromedarii

Hosts and geographic distribution: It infests mainly dromedaries but also cattle and sheep co-pasturing with camels. It is present in the arid and Saharan bioclimatic zones.

Life cycle and activity dynamics: It is active during the four seasons with low frequency during winter and maximal burdens during spring and summer.


Hyalomma dromedarii

Hyalomma excavatum

Hosts and geographic distribution: It parasitizes cattle, sheep, equids and camels. This tick species was reported in all bioclimatic Tunisian zones. It colonizes mainly arid zones in the central, and Saharan climate with rare population in the humid zone in North Tunisia.

Life cycle and activity dynamics: It is active throughout the year with low activity during summer. Some studies showed the presence of this species in spring and winter on sheep flocks from the south of Tunisia while others found a high activity on camels during autumn.


Hyalomma excavatum

Hyalomma marginatum

Hosts and geographic distribution: It is observed on cattle from March to October with an infestation peak during spring. On camels, few numbers of ticks were recorded in spring but were absent in summer and autumn.

Life cycle and activity dynamics: The life cycle of this species was not studied in Tunisia.


Hyalomma marginatum

Ixodes ricinus

Hosts and geographic distribution: This species infests mainly cattle but also sheep and goats. This species is present in mountainous areas in the Northern humid regions of Tunisia (Ain Draham (Jendouba District), Zaghouan Mountain (Zaghouan District), Abderrahman Mountain (Nabeul District) and Kissra (Siliana District).

Life cycle and activity dynamics: It is a three-host tick. The larvae and nymphs are present on ferns (Pteridium aquilininum), they infest lizards (Pseumodromus algirus) between April and August. Adults are present on animals from November to March; they are present on vegetation between September and May.


Ixodes ricinus

Hyalomma impeltatum

Hosts and geographic distribution: In Tunisia, adults of this species feed mainly on camels but also, they were collected from cattle. The immature instars infest mainly rodents. The geographic distribution of this species coincides with those of Hyalomma dromedarii. It occurs in arid and Saharan regions characterized by low pluviometry.

Life cycle and activity dynamics: Its activity seems to be similar to Hyalomma dromedarii.


Hyalomma impeltatum

Ixodes inopinatus

Hosts and geographic distribution: It is present in North West of Tunisia. As in other countries, it was confused with Ixodes ricinus. The biology and the vector role of this species were not studied.

Life cycle and activity dynamics: The life cycle of this species was not studied in Tunisia.

Rhipicephalus sanguineus

Hosts and geographic distribution: This is the most frequent tick species. It is present in all the Tunisian bioclimatic zones. It infests mainly dogs, but also ruminants living in close proximity to dogs.

Life cycle and activity dynamics: All stages of R. sanguineus are observed on dogs. Some authors collected this species between July and October.


Rhipicephalus sanguineus

Rhipicephalus turanicus

Hosts and geographic distribution: It is widely distributed from the humid bioclimatic zone in the North to the arid region in the centre of Tunisia. This tick is abundant in small ruminants in regions characterized by sub-humid and semi-arid climate. Few populations of R. turanicus were collected from one-humped camels in central Tunisia.

Life cycle and activity dynamics: It was reported on ruminants between April and July with an infestation peak during June. It was also collected between April and June from sheep.


Rhipicephalus turanicus

Rhipicephalus bursa

Hosts and geographic distribution: It is less abundant than the other Rhipicephalus species it occurs mainly in humid, sub-humid and semi-arid regions. It was collected from cattle in North West humid regions and in Zaghouan district (semi-arid climate), from horses in humid areas, few specimens were collected in small ruminants from semi-arid regions.

Life cycle and activity dynamics: It is a monotropic species that infest cattle, adults were observed between May and November with high burdens between May and July.


Rhipicephalus bursa

Rhipicephalus annulatus

Hosts and geographic distribution: It infests mainly cattle in humid, sub-humid and semi-arid regions. This species was the most prevalent in in the sub-humid regions.

Life cycle and activity dynamics: The life cycle of this species was not studied in Tunisia.


Rhipicephalus annulatus

Rhipicephalus camicasi

Hosts and geographic distribution: It was rarely reported in sheep from Southern Tunisia.

Life cycle and activity dynamics: It is active mainly in autumn (November and December) and in March.

Haemaphysalis genus

In Tunisia, three species belonging to this genus were identified: Haemaphysalis sulcata, Haemaphysalis punctata and Haemaphysalis erinacei.

Hosts and geographic distribution: The geographic distribution of Haemaphysalis sulcata and Haemaphysalis punctata is limited to the humid and sub-humid regions, they share the same biotopes. Few numbers of Hae. punctata were collected from cattle in North west Tunisia and also from sheep and vegetation. It occurs in Nabeul district (North East). Hae. sulcata was collected mainly in sheep and cattle.

Immature stages of these species were collected from lizards (Psammodromus algirus) and other reptiles but also on hedgehogs.

Life cycle and activity dynamics: Hae. sulcata and Hae. punctata are active between September and February, they were collected on cattle between October and February. The preferential attachment sites are the neck and the back.


Haemaphysalis sulcata

Haemaphysalis punctata

Dermacentor marginatus

Hosts and geographic distribution: It is the only species of this genus present in Tunisia. This species is rarely collected. It parasitizes mainly boars and cattle. Few numbers were collected in humid regions in Northern west Tunisia.

Life cycle and activity dynamics: The life cycle of this species was never studied in Tunisia.


Dermacentor marginatus

Ornithodoros genus

Hosts and geographic distribution: There are four soft tick species in Tunisia: Ornithodoros normandi, Carios erraticus, Argas reflexus and Argas persicus. These ticks were collected from burrows generally occupied by small mammals such as Jird (Meriones shawi) and gerbil (Gerbillus campestris). O. normandi colonize mainly sub-humid and semi-arid zones. Carios erraticus was recorded on sub-humid, arid and Saharan climates.

Argas reflexus and Argas persicus were collected from domestic pigeons (Columbia livia) and poultry from sub-humid regions in Northeast of Tunisia.

Life cycle and activity dynamics: The life cycles of these species were never studied in Tunisia.


Ornithodoros genus

Cycle 1:


Cycle 2:


Cycle 3:

Tick database working group

Name Affiliation Email

Mohamed Gharbi
DVM, MSc, PhD Veterinary Parasitology, Professor, National School of Veterinary Medicine of Sidi Thabet, Sidi Thabet, Tunisia

He gets his DVM from the National School of Veterinary Medicine of Sidi Thabet (Tunisia), his MSc degree from the Faculty of Sciences of Tunis (Tunisia) and his PhD from the Institut Polytechnique de Toulouse (France). He is teaching, as a professor, veterinary parasitology at the NSVM of Sidi Thabet (Tunisia).

gharbim2000 (at) yahoo.fr

Khawla Elati
BSc, MSc, PhD student, National School of Veterinary Medicine of Sidi Thabet, Sidi Thabet, Tunisia

She is a PhD student at the laboratory of parasitology in the National School of Veterinary Medicine of Sidi Thabet, Tunisia. She gets her applied bachelor of science from the Higher Institute of Biotechnology of Beja (Tunisia) and a Research master degree from the Higher Institute of Biotechnology of Sidi Thabet (Tunisia).

elati.khawla (at) gmail.com

Barbara Wieland
DVM, PhD, Team Leader Herd Health, International Livestock Research Institute, ICARDA, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

She is a veterinarian with a PhD in veterinary epidemiology from the University of Bern/Switzerland and with postgraduate degrees in Academic Practise (Kings’s College, London/UK) and in Managing Rural Development (School of Oriental and African Studies SOAS, London/UK). Currently she leads the Herd Health team at ILRI and acts as ILRI focal point and leader of cluster of activities related to livestock health in the CGIAR Research Program on Livestock and to antimicrobial resistance in the CRP Agriculture for Nutrition and Health.

b.wieland (at) cgiar.org

Mourad Rekik
PhD, Senior Scientist in Small Ruminants, ICARDA, Amman Office, Jordan

He is a livestock scientist with more than 25 years of academic and research experience in the area of animal reproduction and also small ruminants’ production and management in drylands. He holds a PhD in animal production from the university of Reading in UK. He also holds a degree as agricultural engineer from the National Institute of Agronomy in Tunisia. Areas of research expertise extend to sheep and goats reproduction and interactions with nutrition, health and genetics.

m.rekik (at) cgiar.org

Khaled Al-Shamaa
Research Database Manager and Senior Analyst, ICARDA, Cairo Office, Egypt

He received B. Sc. (1998) and diploma (2005) in Computer Engineering from Aleppo University. Since 2002 he provides statistical and analytical support to ICARDA scientists, he also contribute to develop and implement several web and database systems. He joined Geoinformatics unit in 2016 to work on spatial and remote sensing analysis.

k.el-shamaa (at) cgiar.org
Last updated at Apr 15, 2018