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Early Babesia canis transmission in dogs within 24 h and 8 h of infestation with infected pre-activated male Dermacentor reticulatus ticks

BACKGROUND: This study was designed to assess the ability of fed male Dermacentor reticulatus ticks to transmit Babesia canis to dogs after being detached from previous canine or ovine hosts. METHODS: The study was an exploratory, parallel group design conducted in two trials. All the animals were s...

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Autores principales: Varloud, Marie, Liebenberg, Julian, Fourie, Josephus
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5772715/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29343275
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13071-018-2637-7
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author Varloud, Marie
Liebenberg, Julian
Fourie, Josephus
author_facet Varloud, Marie
Liebenberg, Julian
Fourie, Josephus
author_sort Varloud, Marie
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: This study was designed to assess the ability of fed male Dermacentor reticulatus ticks to transmit Babesia canis to dogs after being detached from previous canine or ovine hosts. METHODS: The study was an exploratory, parallel group design conducted in two trials. All the animals were sero-negative for babesiosis prior to enrolment. In a first trial, donor dogs and donor sheep were infested with Babesia canis infected male and uninfected female ticks for 72 h. The ticks were detached and the second group of host dogs were infested for 24 h before tick removal. In a second trial, the experiment was repeated but the donor animals were infested for 88 h and the second group of host dogs were infested for 8 h prior to tick removal. After infestation, the dogs were maintained under clinical surveillance and blood samples were collected for blood smear, IFA and PCR analysis. A dog was considered infected if any of these tests were positive. RESULTS: All of the dogs (6 out of 6) were infected after being exposed to pre-activated male ticks for 24 h. Half of the dogs were infected after being exposed to pre-activated ticks for 8 h: 1 out of 3 dogs infested with ticks removed from sheep and 2 out of 3 dogs infested with ticks removed from dog. All the infected dogs were positive to blood smear, IFA and PCR. Three of these dogs exhibited elevated body temperature (> 39.4 °C). CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates the ability of male D. reticulatus to transmit B. canis to dogs. The study also illustrates for the first time that, regardless of the first host on which ticks may attach and start feeding, Babesia canis can be transmitted to dogs within 8 h of infestation. Since no minimal transmission time can be established for all possible natural situations, a strategy of prevention based on anti-attachment or repellency is recommended.
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spelling pubmed-57727152018-01-26 Early Babesia canis transmission in dogs within 24 h and 8 h of infestation with infected pre-activated male Dermacentor reticulatus ticks Varloud, Marie Liebenberg, Julian Fourie, Josephus Parasit Vectors Research BACKGROUND: This study was designed to assess the ability of fed male Dermacentor reticulatus ticks to transmit Babesia canis to dogs after being detached from previous canine or ovine hosts. METHODS: The study was an exploratory, parallel group design conducted in two trials. All the animals were sero-negative for babesiosis prior to enrolment. In a first trial, donor dogs and donor sheep were infested with Babesia canis infected male and uninfected female ticks for 72 h. The ticks were detached and the second group of host dogs were infested for 24 h before tick removal. In a second trial, the experiment was repeated but the donor animals were infested for 88 h and the second group of host dogs were infested for 8 h prior to tick removal. After infestation, the dogs were maintained under clinical surveillance and blood samples were collected for blood smear, IFA and PCR analysis. A dog was considered infected if any of these tests were positive. RESULTS: All of the dogs (6 out of 6) were infected after being exposed to pre-activated male ticks for 24 h. Half of the dogs were infected after being exposed to pre-activated ticks for 8 h: 1 out of 3 dogs infested with ticks removed from sheep and 2 out of 3 dogs infested with ticks removed from dog. All the infected dogs were positive to blood smear, IFA and PCR. Three of these dogs exhibited elevated body temperature (> 39.4 °C). CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates the ability of male D. reticulatus to transmit B. canis to dogs. The study also illustrates for the first time that, regardless of the first host on which ticks may attach and start feeding, Babesia canis can be transmitted to dogs within 8 h of infestation. Since no minimal transmission time can be established for all possible natural situations, a strategy of prevention based on anti-attachment or repellency is recommended. BioMed Central 2018-01-17 /pmc/articles/PMC5772715/ /pubmed/29343275 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13071-018-2637-7 Text en © The Author(s). 2018 Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Research
Varloud, Marie
Liebenberg, Julian
Fourie, Josephus
Early Babesia canis transmission in dogs within 24 h and 8 h of infestation with infected pre-activated male Dermacentor reticulatus ticks
title Early Babesia canis transmission in dogs within 24 h and 8 h of infestation with infected pre-activated male Dermacentor reticulatus ticks
title_full Early Babesia canis transmission in dogs within 24 h and 8 h of infestation with infected pre-activated male Dermacentor reticulatus ticks
title_fullStr Early Babesia canis transmission in dogs within 24 h and 8 h of infestation with infected pre-activated male Dermacentor reticulatus ticks
title_full_unstemmed Early Babesia canis transmission in dogs within 24 h and 8 h of infestation with infected pre-activated male Dermacentor reticulatus ticks
title_short Early Babesia canis transmission in dogs within 24 h and 8 h of infestation with infected pre-activated male Dermacentor reticulatus ticks
title_sort early babesia canis transmission in dogs within 24 h and 8 h of infestation with infected pre-activated male dermacentor reticulatus ticks
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5772715/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29343275
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13071-018-2637-7
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