There is a tendency to believe that the Patagonia’s colder climate discourages the presence of ticks. However, these small parasites are inside domestic dogs, foxes, furry dogs or armadillos.. The tick can also bite people and transmit pathogens that live on it.
A group of researchers from the Research and Transfer Center of the National University of Río Negro and Conicet in Viedma managed for the first time and systematically to describe what species of ticks there are in Northern Patagonia through morphological identification and confirmation by molecular biology techniques. The ticks were on wild animals, such as gray foxes, furry foxes and ferrets, and on domestic dogs. They have also managed to determine what type of pathogenic bacteria were in the ticks.
They are not just a nuisance
They may look like insects, but they have 8 legs and are related to spiders. “The general belief is that ticks only cause allergies and discomfort from bites after scratching. But that is not important. If a tick’s parasite load is very large, they can kill the host by leaving it with such a low amount of blood that it is incompatible with life. Since I am a veterinarian, I have observed it in domestic dogs. Even more serious is that ticks can transmit pathogenic microorganisms, as occurs with several species of bacteria,” he said. Sergio Abatein dialogue with RIO NEGRO Newspaper.
“In countries with a warm climate or in the north of Argentina, people are perhaps more accustomed to hearing and talking about ticks and microorganisms transmitted by ticks – he told RIO NEGRO Diary the doctor in biology Marina Winter, from the UNRN and Conicet. On the other hand, when we think about Patagonia, the region is not associated with ticks beyond the fact that it is known that dogs can get them.”
A female tick on the vegetation waits for the moment to climb onto a new host /Credit Santiago Nava
The researcher, together with Professor Abate and other collaborators, have already made several publications in scientific journals about the findings related to ticks, which feed on the blood of people and warm-blooded animals. When feeding, ticks can transmit pathogenic bacteria that they have already acquired from other organisms or become infected from the organism they bite.
“Due to the advance of urbanization, people, domestic animals and wild species now overlap more in space. Maybe there are no direct encounters, but there is use of the same habitat at different times of the day,” said the scientist.
From the “One Health” perspective (which includes the interaction between different species, including humans), the researchers develop the original line of research. “First of all, one objective was to know what species of ticks circulated in the wildlife of this region. and its link with urban areas,” he commented.
They were also interested in whether local ticks carried pathogenic bacteria. For this, they had the collaboration of researchers from WHILE Rafaela, province of Santa Fe.
Inside the ticks, they detected the presence of bacteria Ehrlichia sp. y Anaplasma sp. In a tick of the species Amblyomma pseudoconcolor extracted from an armadillo or furry, a coinfection with two pathogenic bacteria was found: The candidate Rickettsia andeanae y Ehrlichia sp.
“Anaplasma and Ehrlichia infections are diseases caused by pathogens of the family anaplasmataceae. Rickettsiae are another family of very small bacteria. Both families of bacteria have implications for the health of animals and people,” Winter commented.
Furthermore, he added: “Although in Patagonia we have not yet found the most relevant species from a medical point of view, Our research contributes to the knowledge of the diversity of bacteria and their potential hosts. In a context of global change, it is essential to know the diversity of vectors and pathogens present in a region.”
An increase in global temperature – he warned – could lead to ticks (as well as other vectors) reaching a greater range of distribution. Therefore, “the results of the study should be considered by health personnel since many of these infections with nonspecific clinical signs usually go unnoticed.”
According to Abate, the The new knowledge they have generated about ticks should be taken into account by primary health care professionals to identify symptoms of infections that could develop the population of the region.
From the ANLIS/Malbrán Institute, in the City of Buenos Aires, a national network of reference nodes was generated to treat diseases transmitted by ticks, but a Patagonian province was still included. “We want to open a reference node for Río Negro (and Patagonia in general) on this topic. That’s what we trained for,” explained the veterinarian. They also seek to put together an epidemiological map of the risk of diseases transmitted by vectors such as ticks in the region.
This ferret was found dead after being run over and had two ticks attached / Sergio Abate
What is recommended to avoid tick bites
● A regular veterinary control plan should be followed with pets and external antiparasitics should be administered.
● If you go to areas where ticks are known to be present, you should wear long sleeves on your arms and legs and cover your ankles. If you walk through a natural environment or with abundant plant cover, it is recommended to check yourself once the walk is over, including your ears, scalp, or armpits.
● It must be taken into account that the presence of a tick can go unnoticed. If you find a tick attached to the body of a person or pet, it should be removed slowly. Do not pull on the distal end of the tick and make sure that the attachment structure does not remain inside the skin.
● Conservation of natural environments must be promoted to prevent many vectors such as ticks from reaching a domestic cycle. That is to say,
Many species of ticks parasitize wild species and complete their lives in that area. But if natural environments and, as a consequence, wild animals are reduced, ticks have the ability to adapt and replace their wild hosts with domestic hosts and thus the bacteria they carry are also transmitted. Conserving native biodiversity is a health prevention measure.