Page updated 30 September 2007
Ectoparasites - Ticks
Introduction
Adult and larval ticks live on low shrublands and climb onto animals (eg deer) for a blood meal. Man may pick them up onto clothing, and domestic animals onto their coat, and they will then feed. A heavy infestation picked up, for example, by dragging a coat through the undergrowth, will be an unpleasant biting nuisance and the ticks will later decamp to the sitting room sofa! Adult ticks stay resident for days and grow very large. They are very difficult to remove. Most recent interest has been in the observation that common species of hard tick (eg Ixodes ricinus) cosmopolitan in temperate climes, are vectors of Lyme disease (Borrelia burgdorferi) and erlichiosis (North America and central Europe. Different ticks transmit Congo-Crimean heaemorrhagic fever in Africa and the Middle-East. These are zoonoses carried by deer and other mammals. If a patient presents with a tick bite, send serum to be saved in microbiology.
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