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AFRICAN TICK-BITE FEVER

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       Matheson (1950) noted that this disease is related to the spotted fevers and is caused by Rickettsia spp..  It was first recognized as a clinical disease in South Africa before 1930.  Two vector ticks, Haemaphysalis leachi and Amblyomma hebraeum are known and possibly Rhipicephalus sanguineus as well.  It has been thought that only the tick larvae transmit the disease.  The sore is described as a tache noire and is accompanied by lymphadenitis.  The dog tick, H. leachi, transmits the disease in all stages and also by transovarial transmission.  

 

       This is a typhus fever caused by Rickettsia africae.  It occurs commonly in sub-Saharan Africa and also in the West Indies.  The Reservoir hosts include rodents and probably cattle (Service 2008).  

 

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 Key References:     <medvet.ref.htm>    <Hexapoda>

 

Camicas, J. L., J. . Hervy, F. Adam & P. C. Morel.  1998.  The ticks of the world (Acarida, Ixodida):

       Nomenclature, Described Stages, Hosts,Distribution.  Paris: Editions de l'ORSTOM.

 

Gammons, M. & G. Salam.  2002.  Tick removal.  Amer. Fam. Physician 66:  643-45.

 

Gothe, R., K. Kunze & H. Hoogstraal.  1979.  The mechanisms of pathogenicity in the tick paralyses.  J. Med.

       Ent. 16:  357-69.

 

Hoogstraal, H.  1966.  Ticks in relation to human diseases caused by viruses.  Ann. Rev. Ent. 11:  261-308.

 

Hoogstraal, H.  1967.  Ticks in relation to human diseases caused by Rickettsia species.  Ann. Rev. Ent. 12:

        377-420.

 

Matheson, R. 1950.  Medical Entomology.  Comstock Publ. Co, Inc.  610 p.

 

Needham, G. R. & P. D. Teel.  1991.  Off-host physiological ecology of ixodid ticks.  Ann. Rev. Ent. 36:  313-52.

 

Parola, P. & D. Raoult.  2001.  Tick-borne typhuses.  IN:  The Encyclopedia of arthropod-transmitted Infections

       of Man and Domesticated Animals. ed. M. W. Service, Wallingford: CABI:  pp. 516-24.

 

Service, M.  2008.  Medical Entomology For Students.  Cambridge Univ. Press.  289 p

 

Sonenshine, D. E., R. S. Lane & W. L. Nicholson. 2002.  Ticks (Ixodida).  IN:  Medical & Veterinary Entomology,

       ed. G. Mullen & L. Durden, Ambsterdam Acad. Press.  pp 517-58.

 

Sonenshine, D. E. & T. N. Mather (eds.)  1994.  Ecological Dynamics of Tick-Borne Zoonoses.  Oxford Univ.

      Press, New York.