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Ticks associated with wild mammals in Ghana

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 March 2007

Y. Ntiamoa-Baidu ,
C. Carr-Saunders ,
B.E. Trueman ,
P.M. Preston  and
A.R. Walker
Y. Ntiamoa-Baidu
Affiliation:
Zoology Department, University of Ghana, Legon, Accra, Ghana
C. Carr-Saunders
Affiliation:
Institute for Immunology and Infection Research, School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh, King's Buildings, West Mains Road, Edinburgh, EH9 3JT, UK
B.E. Trueman
Affiliation:
Institute for Immunology and Infection Research, School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh, King's Buildings, West Mains Road, Edinburgh, EH9 3JT, UK
P.M. Preston
Affiliation:
Institute for Immunology and Infection Research, School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh, King's Buildings, West Mains Road, Edinburgh, EH9 3JT, UK
A.R. Walker
Affiliation:
Department of Tropical Animal Health, Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, University of Edinburgh, Roslin, EH25 9RG, UK
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Abstract

The host ranges of a collection of 21 tick species found on wild mammals in the savanna, forests and coastal zone of Ghana suggested that most species were adapted to feeding mainly on host species within a single mammalian order, i.e. on artiodactyls (bovids/suids), carnivores, rodents or pholidotes (pangolins). Only a few species were dispersed evenly across a range of orders. Seven out of ten of the most common ticks on forest mammals were significantly associated with a particular host species or a group of closely related host species, which could be viewed as their major host or hosts, but they were also recorded much less frequently on a wide range of host species. Two other species were confined to their major hosts. Only one species appeared to be widely dispersed on forest mammals and to lack a particular major host. The majority of tick species therefore occurred on hosts with very distinctive biological, behavioural and ecological characteristics. The study provided no evidence to support the view that host specificity is an artefact of sampling. Finding that the tick species on Ghanaian wild mammals occurred on particular hosts, as well as in distinct habitats, indicated that tick–host associations are important for tick survival and confirmed the importance of climate and vegetation in tick distribution.

Type
Research Article
Information
Bulletin of Entomological Research , Volume 95 , Issue 3 , June 2005 , pp. 205 - 219
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2005

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