Professional paper
Morphological characterization of hard ticks from the genus Ixodes, important vectors of infectious diseases in Croatia
Anamarija Boban
; Vet-iva pet d.o.o. Zagreb
Tea Kvesić
; Veterinarska stanica Stolac, BiH,
Franjo Martinković
; Veterinarski fakultet Sveučilišta u Zagrebu, Zagreb, Hrvatska
Abstract
Hard ticks belong to the phylum Arthropoda, class Arachnida, subclass Acari and the family Ixodidae. They are obligatory haematophagous ectoparasites and important causative agent vectors in humans and animals (viruses, bacteria, protozoa and nematodes). Long term feeding and strong host attachment complicate removal and therefore ensures sufficient time for the causative agent to transfer into the new host. Many hard tick species are obliged to switch hosts after feeding on blood, and survive a long period of starvation. At the same time, the causative agents survive along with the hard ticks. Since only certain hard tick species can transmit causative agents in Croatia, the aim of this study was to describe only the most important. Furthermore, there are no data on their morphological characteristics supported by photographs. Because of the large number of tick species present and complexity of morphological identification, this survey was focused on the hard tick species from the Ixodes genus.
Keywords
hard ticks; morphology; Ixodes; Croatia
Hrčak ID:
263640
URI
Publication date:
1.6.2021.
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