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24
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Introduction
Veterinarian and Parasitologist with academic and animal health industry experience
Publications
Publications (24)
Amblyomma maculatum Koch, 1844 (also known as the Gulf Coast tick) is found in parts of the Americas, including the central and southern United States. Its primary importance is as the vector of Rickettsia parkeri, a spotted fever group rickettsia that causes an illness similar to, but milder than, Rocky Mountain spotted fever. A second spotted fev...
Borrelia spp. are agents of Lyme disease and relapsing fever, diseases which use Ixodes hard ticks and Ornithodoros soft ticks, respectively, as primary vectors. Some relapsing fever spirochetes, such as B. miyamotoi, are also found in hard ticks. To date, no Borrelia sp. is known to use the hard tick, Amblyomma maculatum, as a vector. However, bot...
The Gulf Coast tick, Amblyomma maculatum Koch, has become increasingly important in public health for its role as a vector of the recently recognized human pathogen, Rickettsia parkeri. More recently, these ticks were also found to harbor a novel spotted fever group rickettsia, "Candidatus Rickettsia andeanae." First identified in Peru, and subsequ...
Gulf Coast ticks, Amblyomma maculatum, and the zoonotic agents they transmit, Rickettsia parkeri, are expanding into areas in the United States where they were not previously reported, and are emerging threats for public and veterinary health. The dynamics of this tick-pathogen system and implications for disease transmission are still unclear. To...
TO THE EDITOR: Rickettsia parkeri, a spotted fever group Rickettsia (SFGR) bacterium, is transmitted by Amblyomma maculatum, the Gulf Coast tick (1). The prevalence of R. parkeri in Gulf Coast ticks has been reported as <42% in the United States, which is higher than reported rates of R. rickettsii (the cause of Rocky Mountain spotted fever) in Der...
Distribution of Gulf Coast ticks and cases of rickettsiosis.
Currently, bed bugs are one of the most pressing "vector" issues in pest control and environmental health, with increasing reports of the blood-sucking pest being reported in hotels, apartments, and single-family dwellings. Negative health effects from their bites include emotional distress (anxiety, insomnia, and perhaps even Posttraumatic stress...
Gulf Coast ticks, Amblyomma maculatum, occur in most southeastern United States, and are the vector of Rickettsia parkeri, a mild human rickettsiosis similar to Rocky Mountain spotted fever. A novel spotted fever group rickettsia (SFGR), and potential endosymbiont, ″Candidatus Rickettsia andeanae″ was detected in A. maculatum and is still poorly un...
Rhiphicephalus (Boophilus) microplus is one of the most important arthropods in veterinary medicine due economic losses and health problems caused in cattle production. The vaccination represents optimum method evaluated with effective cost to prevent economic losses and to increase the duration and quality of life of the production animals. A synt...
The synthetic vaccine SBm7462 is based on three immunogenic epitopes (4822, 4823 and 4824) contained within protein Bm86 derived from the Australian Yeerongpilly strain of the tick Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus. Twenty strains of the tick originating from Brazil, Argentina, Colombia and Uruguay were analysed in order to identify differences c...
Questions
Questions (2)
Hello all,
I came across two deformed Rhipicephalus sanguineus fed females, please see attached photos. Female 2 weighs 0.265grams and the weirdest one, female 1, 0.209g. These were just slightly lighter weights than normal females. Have you ever seen this? It does not look like gynandromorphism to me. Maybe dog bite trauma?!
They started incubation to lay eggs and 3 days later they started oviposition. Eggs are healthy looking. I can share the specimens and the progeny if any interest. I can't take time to dive into this, but I thought that someone here might be interested.
all the best,
Flavia
Hello! I would like your help with a mite issue in the lab. These mites in the photo appeared yesterday on flea rearing petri dishes where there were flea larvae and the substrate (sand and dry bloodmeal). They were able to escape the dishes and are now crawling around the incubator. I took the pics by placing a drop of water in a slide - 1st question: can you please share a better, but easy mounting method? I have an acarina pictorial key on hands, but my slides are poor quality so I can’t see all the details I need to see to id.
2nd question: If you can identify these mites from my photos, what are they? Knowing the species will help us understand the origin of problem: there are dogs, cats but also there’s access to feral mice and birds.
3rd question: best method to kill these without killing other ectos - fleas and ticks? I cannot warm up the incubator too high to cook them, I wish.
Thanks for reading all this and for your help! Pics to follow
Flavia Ferrari
