Ehrlichia muris in Ixodes cookei Ticks, Northeastern United States, 2016-2017.

Ehrlichia muris is an agent of human ehrlichiosis. To determine its geographic spread in the United States, during 2016-2017, we tested 8,760 ticks from 45 states. A distinct clade of E. muris found in 3 Ixodes cookei ticks from the northeastern United States suggests transmission by these ticks in this region.

The Current Status of Ticks in Turkey: A 100-Year Period Review from 1916 to 2016.

Environmental and bio-ecological changes, some administrative and political mistakes, and global warming seriously affect the behaviors of ticks in Turkey and globally. The global public sensitivity toward tick infestations has increased along with increases in tick-borne diseases (TBDs). Recently, the World Health Organization (WHO) developed a new political concept, "One Health," for specific struggle strategies against tick infestations and TBDs. To highlight the importance of the issue, the WHO had declared the year 2015 for vector-borne diseases and adopted the slogan "small bites big threat". In global struggle strategies, the epidemiological aspects and dynamics of increasing tick populations and their effects on the incidence of the TBDs mainly with zoonotic characteristics have been specifically targeted. In Turkey, during the last century, approximately 47 tick species, including eight soft and 39 hard tick species in three and six genera belonging to Argasidae and Ixodidae, respectively, had already been reported. In this article, the recorded tick species, regional infestations, and medical and veterinary importance in Turkey were chronologically reviewed based on a 100-year period between 1916 and 2016.

Canine rangeliosis due to Rangelia vitalii: from first report in Brazil in 1910 to current day - a review.

Canine rangeliosis (popular names: "nambi-uvú", i.e. ``bleeding ears''; "peste de sangue", i.e. ``bleeding plague''; and "febre amarela dos cães", i.e. ``yellow fever of dogs'') is a tick-borne haemolytic and haemorrhagic disease caused by the protozoan parasite Rangelia vitalii which infects erythrocytes, leukocytes, and endothelial cells of blood capillaries. Rangelia vitalii was first reported as a novel piroplasm of dogs in 1910 in Brazil, a discovery that was met with skepticism at that time. Canine rangeliosis has been diagnosed in domestic dogs not only in Brazil but also in other South American countries (Argentina and Uruguay). Rangelia vitalii infection has also been found incidentally in Brazil in wild dogs (Cerdocyon thous, the crab-eating fox). Despite the fact that researchers in the early 1900s suggested that R. vitalii was a hitherto unidentified piroplasm that would be transmitted by the tick Amblyomma aureolatum, it was not until 2012 that these hypotheses were actually confirmed by PCR and transmission studies. Molecular studies have shown that R. vitalii is related to the Babesia sensu strictu clade, but genetically different from other morphologically similar species of Babesia that infect dogs. Another difference between Babesia spp. and R. vitalii is the ability of R. vitalii to invade endothelial cells, erythrocytes, and leukocytes. Experimental infection in dogs has successfully reproduced the clinical picture and pathology of the natural disease. In this article, epidemiology, clinical signs, laboratory findings, pathogenetic mechanisms including oxidative stress and immune response, necropsy findings, microscopic lesions, diagnosis, and treatment of canine rangeliosis are reviewed. What is currently known about this protozoal disease since its first report over a century ago is presented herein.

The plague of the Philistines and other pestilences in the Ancient World: exploring relations between the religious-literary tradition, artistic evidence and scientific proof.

In ancient times the term pestilence referred not only to infectious disease caused by Yersinia pestis, but also to several different epidemics. We explore the relations between references in the Bible and recent scientific evidence concerning some infectious diseases, especially the so-called Plague of the Philistines and leprosy. In addition, some considerations regarding possible connections among likely infectious epidemic diseases and the Ten Plagues of Egypt are reported. Evidence suggesting the presence of the rat in the Nile Valley in the II millennium BC is shown; a possible role of the rat in the plague spreading already in this historical period should be confirmed by these data. While the biblical tale in the Book of Samuel may well report an epidemic event resembling the plague, as to date this infectious disease remains unknown, it is not conceivable to confirm the presence of leprosy in the same age, because the little palaeopathologic evidence of the latter disease, in the geographic area corresponding to Egypt and Palestine, is late, dating back only to the II century AD.

A tick from a prehistoric Arizona coprolite.

Ticks have never been reported in archaeological analyses. Here, we present the discovery of a tick from a coprolite excavated from Antelope Cave in extreme northwest Arizona. Dietary analysis indicates that the coprolite has a human origin. This archaeological occupation is associated with the Ancestral Pueblo culture (Anasazi). This discovery supports previous hypotheses that ticks were a potential source of disease and that ectoparasites were eaten by ancient people.

Veterinary entomology, colonial science and the challenge of tick-borne diseases in South Africa during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

This article provides an historical overview of developments in veterinary entomology during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. During that period state employed entomologists and veterinary scientists discovered that ticks were responsible for transmitting a number of livestock diseases in South Africa. Diseases such as heartwater, redwater and gallsickness were endemic to the country. They had a detrimental effect on pastoral output, which was a mainstay of the national economy. Then in 1902 the decimating cattle disease East Coast fever arrived making the search for cures or preventatives all the more urgent. Vaccine technologies against tick-borne diseases remained elusive overall and on the basis of scientific knowledge, the South African state recommended regularly dipping animals in chemical solutions to destroy the ticks. Dipping along with quarantines and culls resulted in the eradication of East Coast fever from South Africa in the early 1950s. However, from the 1930s some ticks evolved a resistance to the chemical dips meaning that diseases like redwater were unlikely to be eliminated by that means. Scientists toiled to improve upon existing dipping technologies and also carried out ecological surveys to enhance their ability to predict outbreaks. Over the longer term dipping was not a panacea and ticks continue to present a major challenge to pastoral farming.

Dedication: Conrad Yunker.

This volume of the proceedings of STVM-03 is dedicated to Dr. Connie Yunker for his many contributions to tropical veterinary medicine and for being a good colleague and friend.