Tick Infestation on Wild Snakes in Northern Part of Western Ghats of India

Abstract

In total, 167 individuals of 30 species of snakes belonging to 22 genera and five families were examined for tick infestation from November 2008 to March 2010. Only two species of snakes, Ptyas mucosa (L., 1758) (Indian rat snake) and Naja naja (L., 1758) (spectacled cobra), were found infested by ticks. All ticks collected were identified to be Amblyomma gervaisi [previously Aponomma gervaisi (Lucas, 1847) 1. The average prevalence of these ticks on Indian rat snakes (n=48) was 29.16%, with abundance of 7.02 ticks per individual; on spectacled cobras (n=20), average prevalence was 30.00%, with abundance of 6.9 ticks per individual. The nymphs and males were predominant. All the ticks were found on the dorsal aspect of the body of the snake, and no ticks were recorded on the head, tail, or ventral body. The rate of tick infestation was highest in scrubland and was lowest in evergreen forests. Female Indian rat snakes showed higher tick infestation rates than male Indian rat snakes. Using Mann-Whitney U test, we found that longer snakes of both species had significantly higher rate of tick infestation in both the species of snakes.

A study on endoparasitic and ectoparasitic fauna of snakes in Mizoram, India

“…Parasites may have detrimental effects on the well-being of reptiles kept in zoos, farms or as domestic pets [4,5]. The different techniques were used for detection of parasitic ova in feces of snakes as per previous researchers [9][10][11][12].…”

“…They become one of the common pet animals throughout the world. Like other species, they can also harbour various parasites [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]. In zoos, reptilian species including snakes are often closely confined together and this causes stress resulting in alteration of host-parasite relationship.…”

“…Apart from sporadic reports on parasitic infections of reptiles from different parts of India [5][6][7], there is limited information on prevalence of parasites in snakes.…”

Scanning electron microscope study of a snake tick, Amblyomma gervaisi (Acari: Ixodidae)

“…So it is very essential to study of these amazing ticks to unravel detail body organization. Infestation of snakes by ticks is common in India (Pandit et al 2011).…”

Snake parasitism in an urban old-growth forest

“…Surprisingly, no ticks were found on snakes in this study despite an abundance of these ectoparasites in the urban forest and the potential for ticks to parasitize snakes (Aubret et al 2005;Pandit et al 2011). Nearly 50 % of copperheads were infected with Hepatozoon spp.…”