The Persian tick Argas persicus (Ixodida: Argasidae) in Kalmykia (Russia)

The epidemiological significance of ticks of the genus Argas has been known since 1897, as this genus includes at least 61 species of ticks parasitizing birds and bats and is capable of hosting and transmitting several bacterial diseases such as salmonellosis and aegyptianellosis. We present a summary of the monitoring of A. persicus ticks collected from several bird species during 4 years in the Republic of Kalmykia, Russia. Our results show that domestic and wild birds can host high numbers of ticks and their close proximity increases the probability of exchanging ticks. We found that various birds from no migratory species come to contact with poultry during their nesting season and likely exchange ticks with them. Our results show that despite the regular acaricide treatment of farms, tick presence was extremely high with the exception of small sporadic reductions.