Hard ticks collected parasitizing wild animals at Sorocaba Zoo, State of São Paulo, Brazil

Abstract

Ticks are bloodsucking arachnids that parasitize domestic animals and a diversity of wild animals in terrestrial environments of the planet. This study reports the occurrence of hard ticks on wild animals from the countryside of São Paulo state, Brazil, which were forwarded to the Sorocaba zoo. During the years of 2014, 2015 and 2016, using taxonomic keys, ticks were collected from naturally infested wild animals that were sent to the zoo, and were taxonomically identified in the laboratory. In total, 675 tick specimens were identified into 14 different tick species, collected from one reptile specimen, four birds and 31 mammal specimens, totaling 17 different species of wild animals. This work reports for the first time Amblyomma sculptum adults parasitizing Phrynops geoffroanus and Rhea americana and nymphs of the same species on Urubitinga coronata, in addition to Amblyomma parkeri nymph on Spizaetus tyrannus, and Amblyomma brasiliense nymph on Mazama gouazoubira in Brazil. In this study, three main tick vectors of spotted fever ricketsioses in Brazil were found, namely Amblyomma aureolatum, Amblyomma ovale e A. sculptum, showing that zoos are efficient research centers for screening and investigation of tick diversity.