ECOLOGICAL AND IMMUNOLOGICAL .', STUDIES ON TWO SPECIES OF HARD

Abstract

Ticks are ectoparasites pose a considerable threat to humans and animals all over the world. Ticks are very important vectors of diseases from both human and veterinary perspectives. The host defensive actions against feeding ticks include grooming activity and acquired resistance reducing, tick attachment success, engorgement weight or moulting success. Active immunization of hosts with tick homogenates demonstrated that host animals exposed repeatedly to tick infestation or immunized with tick internal antigens develop resistance which produces ill effects in ticks, including a rPduced number of engorged ticks, a reduced weight of ingested blood, a reduced number of eggs, a delay in oviposition onset and an increase of mortality. Tick control can be achieved by application of chemicals but the development of resistance to many acaricides has created problems in this approach. alternative measure such as enhancement of host resistance by immunization would constitute a major advance in control. This study was performed in two parts, the first one concernes with ecological study, while the second belongs to immuno- parasitological study.

1- Ecological study: This study demonstrated:

a) effect of mating on feeding of Boophilus annulatus and Hyalomma dromedariifemales, b) effect of delayed mating on the weight gain of the females during the feeding period. C) effect of mating on fecundity and fertility of females.