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Tick paralysis resulting from bites from Ixodes holocyclus and I . cornuatus is one of the leading causes of emergency veterinary admissions for companion animals in Australia, often resulting in death if left untreated. Availability of timely information on periods of increased risk can help modulate behaviors that reduce exposures to ticks and improve awareness of owners for the need of lifesaving preventative ectoparasite treatment. Improved awareness of clinicians and pet owners about temporal changes in tick paralysis risk can be assisted by ecological forecasting frameworks that integrate environmental information into statistical time series models. Using an 11-year time series of tick paralysis cases from veterinary clinics in one of Australia’s hotspots for the paralysis tick Ixodes holocyclus , we asked whether an ensemble model could accurately forecast clinical caseloads over near-term horizons. We fit a series of statistical time series (ARIMA, GARCH) and generative models (Prophet, Generalised Additive Model) using environmental variables as predictors, and then combined forecasts into a weighted ensemble to minimise prediction interval error. Our results indicate that variables related to temperature anomalies, levels of vegetation moisture and the Southern Oscillation Index can be useful for predicting tick paralysis admissions. Our model forecasted tick paralysis cases with exceptional accuracy while preserving epidemiological interpretability, outperforming a field-leading benchmark Exponential Smoothing model by reducing both point and prediction interval errors. Using online particle filtering to assimilate new observations and adjust forecast distributions when new data became available, our model adapted to changing temporal conditions and provided further reduced forecast errors. We expect our model pipeline to act as a platform for developing early warning systems that can notify clinicians and pet owners about heightened risks of environmentally driven veterinary conditions.

Background From three days following host attachment, the Australian paralysis tick, Ixodes holocyclus , secretes a neurotoxin that annually causes paralysis in approximately 10,000 domestic pets. Lotilaner, a novel isoxazoline formulated in a chewable flavoured tablet (Credelio TM ), produces rapid onset of acaricidal activity in dogs, with an efficacy duration of at least one month. Two studies were performed to determine the efficacy of lotilaner against I. holocyclus infestations over 3 months. Methods Both studies included 16 dogs, ranked according to I. holocyclus counts on Day -5 (from infestations on Day -8) and blocked into pairs. One dog in each pair was randomized to be a sham-treated control, the other to receive lotilaner at a minimum dose rate of 20 mg/kg on Day 0. Dogs were dosed in a fed state. Infestations were performed in both studies on Days -8 (to determine the tick carrying capacity of each dog) -1, 28, 56, 70, 77 and 84, and additionally in Study 1 on Day 91, in Study 2 on Days 14 and 42. In Study 1, ticks were counted and assessed as alive or dead at 24, 48 and 72 h post-initial infestation and post-subsequent re-infestations. In study 2, ticks were counted at 24, 48 and 72 h post-dosing or post-re-infestation. Efficacy was determined by the percent reduction in live attached tick counts in the lotilaner group compared to control. Results Within 48 h post-treatment in Study 1 and within 72 h post-treatment in Study 2 all lotilaner-group dogs were free of live ticks. By 72 h post-infestation, efficacy in Study 1 remained at 100% through Day 87, except on Day 31 when a single tick was found on one dog, and through Day 59 in Study 2. Efficacy exceeded 95% through the final assessment in each study (Days 94 and 87 in Studies 1 and 2, respectively). Conclusion These results demonstrate that lotilaner quickly kills existing I. holocyclus infestations. By providing 95.3–100.0% protection through at least 87 days post-treatment, lotilaner can be a valuable tool in reducing the risk of tick paralysis in dogs.

We report the importation into Connecticut, U.S.A., of an exotic tick, Hyalomma truncatum (Koch) (Acari: Ixodidae), on a human with recent travel history to Africa. The tick was identified using key morphological characters and through DNA sequencing. This case report highlights continuing risk associated with the importation of exotic tick vectors of medical and veterinary significance on international travelers returning to the United States from abroad.

Background Tick paralysis, resultant from envenomation by the scrub-tick Ixodes holocyclus , is a serious threat for small companion animals in the eastern coast of Australia. We hypothesise that surveillance systems that are built on Internet search queries may provide a more timely indication of high-risk periods more effectively than current approaches. Methods Monthly tick paralysis notifications in dogs and cats across Australia and the states of Queensland (QLD) and New South Wales (NSW) were retrieved from Disease WatchDog surveillance system for the period 2011–2013. Internet search terms related to tick paralysis in small companion animals were identified using Google Correlate, and corresponding search frequency metrics were downloaded from Google Trends. Spearman’s rank correlations and time series cross correlations were performed to assess which Google search terms lead or are synchronous with tick paralysis notifications. Results Metrics data were available for 24 relevant search terms at national level, 16 for QLD and 18 for NSW, and they were all significantly correlated with tick paralysis notifications ( P  < 0.05). Among those terms, 70.8, 56.3 and 50 % showed strong Spearman’s correlations, at national level, for QLD, and for NSW respectively, and cross correlation analyses identified searches which lead notifications at national or state levels. Conclusion This study demonstrates that Internet search metrics can be used to monitor the occurrence of tick paralysis in companion animals, which would facilitate early detection of high-risk periods for tick paralysis cases. This study constitutes the first application of the rapidly emerging field of Internet-based surveillance to veterinary science.

For the first time, infestation of the Australian emu by a native tick is recorded based on an engorged adult female specimen of the southern paralysis tick ( Ixodes cornuatus ) taken from a captive emu at Healesville sanctuary, Victoria, Australia. Tick paralysis in Australian birds is discussed.

Cattle and sheep can develop immunity to paralysis caused by Dermacentor andersoni Stiles; however, this has been reported only in animals that were initially challenged with a high dose of ticks and exhibited clear symptoms of paralysis. Paralysis in sheep occurs in a dose-dependent fashion, with no paralysis occurring in sheep exposed to <0.2 ticks per kilogram sheep weight, and 100% paralysis in sheep exposed to >0.8 ticks per kilogram. This experiment was conducted to determine if sheep exposed to a low dose of ticks would also develop immunity to paralysis. Sheep were exposed to either a low (0.2 ticks per kilogram) or high dose of ticks (0.8 ticks per kilogram), then re-exposed to a second challenge of a paralyzing dose of ticks. All naïve sheep (eight of the eight) were paralyzed, while paralysis occurred in only four of the eight sheep previously exposed to a low dose, and one of the eight sheep previously exposed to a high dose. Results indicate that immunity can develop when sheep are exposed to a subclinical dose of paralyzing ticks, but in a smaller percentage of animals than those exposed to a high dose of ticks. Vaccine development perhaps remains the best option for nonacaricidal control of tick paralysis.

When a parasite finds a new wildlife host, impacts can be significant. In the late 1980s populations of Spectacled Flying-foxes (SFF) (Pteropus conspicillatus), a species confined, in Australia, to north Queensland became infected by paralysis tick (Ixodes holocyclus), resulting in mortality. This Pteropus-tick relationship was new to Australia. Curiously, the relationship was confined to several camps on the Atherton Tableland, north Queensland. It was hypothesised that an introduced plant, wild tobacco (Solanum mauritianum), had facilitated this new host-tick interaction. This study quantifies the impact of tick paralysis on SFF and investigates the relationship with climate. Retrospective analysis was carried out on records from the Tolga Bat Hospital for 1998-2010. Juvenile mortality rates were correlated to climate data using vector auto-regression. Mortality rates due to tick paralysis ranged between 11.6 per 10,000 bats in 2003 and 102.5 in 2009; more female than male adult bats were affected. Juvenile mortality rates were negatively correlated with the total rainfall in January to March and July to September of the same year while a positive correlation of these quarterly total rainfalls existed with the total population. All tick affected camps of SFF were located in the 80% core range of S. mauritianum. This initial analysis justifies further exploration of how an exotic plant might alter the relationship between a formerly ground-dwelling parasite and an arboreal host.

Tick toxicoses, of which paralysis is the most widespread and dominant form, are important elements of pathogenesis induced by ticks. Tick paralysis is the most widespread and dominant form of tick toxicoses. Non-paralytic forms of tick toxicoses do occur and evidence suggests that these forms of toxicoses are not evolutionary related. While functional significance has been suggested for tick toxins, the advantages for tick survival in general are not clear. This review considers the molecular nature of tick toxins, the possibility that tick toxins have originated more than once independently and whether these toxins could have unrecognized benign functions.

Ticks are obligate blood-sucking arthropods that exist worldwide. Their targets include all vertebrates and humans. Ticks are harmful to people with regard to transmission in many viral, bacterial, and parasitic infections. In addition to these diseases and toxin-induced neurological complications, tick-induced paralysis is a syndrome related to neurotoxin production, and its mortality ratio in the literature is reported to be approximately 10%. Tick-induced isolated facial paralysis is a rare form of the disease developing because of attachment to the external auditory canal or attachment behind the ear. Our country and region are under risk in terms of included tick habitat for tick-induced paralysis that is responsible particularly for hard ticks. In our article, we aimed to present a case with isolated facial paralysis that occurred after the internal auditory canal was bitten by Hyalomma margintum species belonging to the hard ticks group and to probe the management of this disease.

We present the case of a 33 year-old man from a village of the north-eastern part of central Anatolia admitted to the otolaryngology department of Yeditepe University Hospital with right facial asymmetry and pain on the right ear. A tick of the genus Hyalomma was observed in the external auditory canal of the right ear and it was removed with fine cup forceps under otomicroscopy. We are of the opinion that in patients presenting with sudden acute ear pain and facial palsy, the ear canal should be examined to exclude an infestation by ticks.