Rhipicephalus sanguineus group: an update of the taxonomic status and its epidemiological implication

NAVA S

Simposio; 13th International Symposium on Ticks and Tick-borne Diseases.; 2019

The Rhipicephalus sanguineus group includes several species such as Rhipicephalus sanguineus s.s., R. sulcatus, R. rossicus, R. schulzei, R. pumilio, R. pusillus,R. turanicus, R. leporis, R. guilhoni,R. moucheti, and R. camicasi. Rhipicephalussanguineus s.s. is, from a public health and economic perspective, the mostimportant species of this species group. Inspite of the veterinary, medical and economic relevance of R. sanguineus s.s., its name has often been applied to anypopulation of Rhipicephalus ticks ofthe R. sanguineus group associatedworldwide with dogs. This was often done without following any strict formal,biological, morphological or molecular criteria. But recently, a neotype of R. sanguineus s.s. was designated, allparasitic stages were morphologically described, and DNA sequences of differentmolecular markers are now available. This re-definition of R. sanguineus s.s. as a biological entity constitutes a benchmarkagainst which the taxonomic and ecological diversity represented by the tickscurrently assigned to this name could be compared. This would also allow a moreacute assessment of epidemiological and control issues. The taxa R. puillus, R. rosssicus and R. turanicus s.s. are formally welldefined and phylogenetically represent independent lineages, but the biologicalsignificance of the phylogenetic relationship among R. guilhoni, R. camicasi, R. leporis and the so called ?tropicallineage from America? remains unresolved. Thetaxonomic status of the tick populations that have been called R. turanicus in parts of theMediterranean basin of Spain, Portugal and France and in southernSwitzerland also remains unresolved. In fact. they don?t belong to R. turanicus s.s.  The taxonomic reassessment of speciesbelonging to the R. sanguineus grouphas epidemiological relevance because it hasbeen shown that there are relevant interspecific differences regardingecological aspects and the vectorial competence to transmit tick-bornepathogens.