Worldwide comparison between the potential distribution of Rhipicephalus microplus (Acari: Ixodidae) under climate change scenarios

Abstract

The cattle tick Rhipicephalus microplus (Acari: Ixodidae) has demonstrated its ability to increase its distribution raising spatially its importance as a vector for zoonotic hemotropic pathogens. In this study, a global ecological niche model of R. microplus was built in different scenarios using Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP), Socio‐Economic Pathway (SSP), and a climatic dataset to determine where the species could establish itself and thus affect the variability in the presentation of the hemotropic diseases they transmit. America, Africa and Oceania showed a higher probability for the presence of R. microplus in contrast to some countries in Europe and Asia in the ecological niche for the current period (1970–2000), but with the climate change, there was an increase in the ratio between the geographic range preserved between the RCP and SSP scenarios obtaining the greatest gain in the interplay of RCP4.5‐SSP245. Our results allow to determine future changes in the distribution of the cattle tick according to the increase in environmental temperature and socio‐economic development influenced by human development activities and trends; this work explores the possibility of designing integral maps between the vector and specific diseases.