Original Research

Parasites of domestic and wild animals in South Africa. XLVIII . Ticks (Acari: Ixodidae) infesting domestic cats and wild felids in southern Africa

Ivan G. Horak, Heloise Heyne, Edward F. Donkin
Onderstepoort Journal of Veterinary Research | Vol 77, No 1 | a3 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.4102/ojvr.v77i1.3 | © 2010 Ivan G. Horak, Heloise Heyne, Edward F. Donkin | This work is licensed under CC Attribution 4.0
Submitted: 23 August 2010 | Published: 24 November 2010

About the author(s)

Ivan G. Horak, Department of Veterinary Tropical Diseases, Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Pretoria, South Africa Department of Zoology and Entomology, University of the Free State, South Africa, South Africa
Heloise Heyne, ARC-Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute, Onderstepoort, South Africa, South Africa
Edward F. Donkin, Department of Production Animal Studies, Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Pretoria, South Africa, South Africa

Abstract

Ticks collected from domestic cats (Felis catus), cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus),caracals (Caracal caracal), African wild cats (Felis lybica), black-footed cats (Felis nigripes), a serval (Leptailurus serval), lions(Panthera leo), and leopards (Panthera pardus) were identified and counted. Thirteen species of ixodid ticks and one argasid tick were identified from domestic cats and 17 species of ixodid ticks from wild felids. The domestic cats and wild felids harboured 11 ixodid species in common. The adults of Haemaphysalis elliptica, the most abundant tick species infesting cats and wild felids, were most numerous on a domestic cat in late winter and in mid-summer, during 2 consecutive years. The recorded geographic distribution of the recently described Haemaphysalis colesbergensis, a parasite of cats and caracals, was extended by 2 new locality records in the Northern Cape Province,South Africa.

Keywords

domestic cats; ixodid ticks; 19 species; southern Africa; wild felids

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