Project topics and materials
Get Complete Project Material File(s) Now! »
Cheetahs
The tick burdens of cheetahs were determined at De Wildt/Shingwedzi in June 2008 and subsequently at Brits from October till December 2008. This was done when the cheetahs were restrained for spraying against ectoparasites, and the skin was searched for the presence of ticks. Adult ticks, mostly engorged ones, since they were more easily visible to the naked eye, were collected by application of a finger and the thumb at the point of attachment, rather than by directly pulling on the tick’s body.
Because of the restraint-associated stress and possible self-injury due to physical restraint of the cheetahs in a cage, the researcher did not have adequate time to search the entire body for ticks. Therefore, only a small patch (10 x 10 cm) at various anatomical locations (ventral and dorsal parts of the neck, shoulders as well as the perineal region and tail, where ticks mostly tend to attach) on the skin of each cheetah was searched for ixodid ticks (Bryson, Horak, Höhn & Louw, 2000). The ticks were identified and the numbers collected were recorded and eventually regarded as the tick burdens of each cheetah.
• Murid rodents
As small mammals are the preferred hosts of the immature stages of several tick species they were trapped and examined at De Wildt/Brits at two-month intervals from July 2010 to May 2011 and in two sessions at Hoedspruit (November 2010 and May 2011). Small mammals were trapped in Sherman live traps. A census line of 40 Sherman live-traps was set against the western fence of a series of occupied cheetah enclosures. A control line of 40 Sherman traps equally spaced was set across a 20 meter wide servitude that served as a service road for the two rows of enclosures. The control line was set against the eastern fence of a series of unoccupied enclosures. In all instances traps were spaced 10 meters apart. Traps were baited with a mixture of rolled oats, peanut butter, a dash of sunflower oil and cane syrup. The trap lines were set for three consecutive nights, and checked in the mornings and re-baited in the evenings. At the request of the management of the Centre, the traps were closed during the day to avoid catching yellowfooted squirrels (Paraxerus cepapi). This generated 120 trapping nights per line per trapping session.
Animals trapped in the census line were removed for laboratory examination, whereas animals trapped in the control line were released after being marked with a red Aerolac spray paint. Individuals re-trapped during any particular trapping session were discounted since they had already been recorded as part of the resident rodent population. The rodents were identified taxonomically as proposed by Bronner, Hoffmann, Taylor, Chimimba, Best, Matthee and Robinson (2003) and Skinner and Chimimba (2005) and then placed in labelled bags and transported to the ectoparasitology laboratory at the Faculty of Veterinary Science where they were removed from the bags and euthanised by a rapid non-sterile intraperitoneal injection of 1ml of Eutha-naze (Bayer, Animal Health Division, Germany).
Having made sure that the rodents were dead, the carcasses were individually placed in separate labelled clear plastic bags and soaked in suspension of the tick detaching agent Amitix (Schering-Plough, Animal Health Division, USA) at a concentration of 4ml in a litter of water, after which the bags were sealed (Horak et al., 1986).
The following morning each rodent was thoroughly washed and then the skin was scrubbed with brushes with steel bristles and the washings and scrubbings were collected in bottles. At the laboratory one sample at a time was processed. The contents of the bottles were slowly poured into a steel mesh sieve, with 150 μm apertures and washed with a strong jet of water. The contents of the sieve were transferred to a container and from there, bit by bit, into a square perspex tray and examined under a stereoscopic microscope for collection of the ticks that were present (Horak, Boomker, Spickett & De Vos, 1992). The collected ticks were placed in separate labelled glass vials containing 70% ethanol as preservative prior to being examined under a stereoscopic microscope for identification (genus and species), counting, and finally recording. At the conclusion of each trapping session the traps and specimen bags were thoroughly washed.
The vegetation in the cheetah camps along the census line was also drag-sampled for ticks. Ten drag-samples, each 50 meters long, were performed during one of the mornings within each rodent trapping session in order to compare the numbers of ticks and their species recovered from the vegetation and the rodents.
Chapter 1: General introduction
1. The Ann Van Dyk Cheetah Breeding Centre – De Wildt/Brits
2. The Ann Van Dyk Cheetah Breeding Centre – De Wildt/Shingwedzi
3. The Hoedspruit Endangered Species Centre
4. The Cheetah Outreach
Breeding management and husbandry at the centers
References
Chapter 2: Literature review
1. Cheetah
1.1. The cheetah in history
1.2. Classification of cheetahs
1.3. Distribution of cheetahs
1.4. Threats and status
1.5. Diseases in cheetahs
2. Babesia
2.1. Babesia species
2.2. Background of Babesia species in felids
2.3. Life cycle of Babesia species
2.4. Babesiosis in felids
2.5. Epidemiology of feline babesiosis in South Africa
2.6. Diagnostic tests
2.6.1. Microscopic identification
2.6.2. Serological test
2.6.3. Nucleic acid detection
2.7. Chemotherapy and control of babesiosis in felids
3. Vector
3.1. Vector-borne diseases
3.2. Tick (Acari: Ixodidae)
3.2.1. Classification of ticks
3.2.2. Life cycle of ticks
3.3. Effect of environmental variables on tick populations in a region
3.4. Effect of environmental variables on tick populations on a host
3.5. Ixodid ticks as potential vectors for Babesia species
References
Chapter 3: Species diversity and diurnal and seasonal patterns of activity of questing ticks (Acari: Ixodidae) associated with captive cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) populations in South Afric
Abstract
Introduction
Materials and methods
1. Survey localities and period
2. Tick recovery
2.1. Drag sampling
2.2. Cheetahs
2.3. Murid rodents
Results
Discussion
References
Chapter 4: Detection of Babesia species in captive cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) populations, associated field-collected ticks (Acari: Ixodidae), mice and their related ticks in South Africa
Abstract
Introduction
Materials and Methods
1. Survey localities and period
2. Samples collection
3. Preparation of blood smear
4. DNA isolation
4.1. Blood samples from cheetahs
4.2. Tick specimens
4.3. Blood samples from mice
4.4. Tick specimens from the trapped mice
5. PCR reactions
6. Agarose gel electrophoresis
7. Reverse line blot (RLB) hybridization assay
7.1. Babesia species-specific probes
7.2. Preparation of the plasmid control
7.3. Preparation of the RLB membrane
7.4. Hybridization
Results
Discussion
References
Chapter 5: Phylogeny of Babesia species detected in captive cheetahs and Haemaphysalis elliptica (Acari: Ixodidae) in South Africa
Abstract
Introduction
Materials and Methods
1. DNA samples
2. PCR reaction and PCR product purification
3. Cloning and plasmid extraction
4. Sequence analysis
5. Phylogenic tree construction
Results
Discussion
References
Chapter 6: Phylogeny of Haemaphysalis elliptica (Acari: Ixodidae) using mitochondrial 12S and 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis
Chapter 7: Risk factors for infection with Babesia species at various cheetah breeding centres in South Africa
