Abstract
Blood feeding and digestion are vital physiological activities essential for the survival and reproduction of ticks. Chemical acaricides viz., ivermectin, amitraz and fipronil, are known to act on the central nervous system, resulting in the mortality of ticks. The present study is focused on the effect of these acaricides on the midgut and gut enzymes of Rhipicephalus microplus. The ultra-thin sections of midgut of ivermectin-treated ticks showed irregular basal membrane and ruptured digestive vesicles. Amitraz treatment resulted in a notable decrease in digestive cells with pleats in the basal membrane, while fipronil-exposed ticks exhibited reduced digestive cells, loss of cellular integrity, and disintegration of the basal membrane and muscle layer. The gut tissue homogenate of ivermectin and fipronil treated ticks showed a significant reduction of cathepsin D level, 76.54 ± 3.20 μg/mL and 92.67 ± 3.72 μg/mL, respectively, as compared to the control group (150.0 ± 3.80 μg/mL). The leucine aminopeptidase level (4.27 ± 0.08 units/mL) was significantly decreased in the ivermectin treated ticks compared to other treatment groups. The acid phosphatase activity (29.16 ± 0.67 μmole/min/L) was reduced in the ivermectin treated group whereas, increased activity was observed in the fipronil and amitraz treated groups. All the treatment groups revealed increased alkaline phosphatase levels (17.47–26.72 μmole/min/L). The present finding suggests that in addition to the established mechanism of action of the tested acaricides on the nervous system, the alterations in the cellular profile of digestive cells and enzymes possibly affect the blood digestion process and thus the synthesis of vital proteins which are essential for vitellogenesis, and egg production in ticks.
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Abbreviations
- GTH:
-
Gut tissue homogenate
- LAP:
-
Leucine aminopeptidase
- ALP:
-
Alkaline phosphatase
- ACP:
-
Acid phosphatase
- IVM:
-
Ivermectin
- AMZ:
-
Amitraz
- FIP:
-
Fipronil
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The authors are grateful to the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi for funding through the National Agricultural Science Fund Project No. NASF/ABA-6015/2016–17/357.
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Srikant Ghosh: conceptualization, supervision, funding acquisition, final draft preparation; Nisha Bisht: methodology, investigation, data curation, writing (original draft preparation). Ashutosh Fular: methodology, investigation, writing (review and editing). Mohini Saini: supervision, methodology. Satyanshu Kumar: resources. Sankar M: draft preparation. Anil Kumar Sharma: review and editing.
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Bisht, N., Fular, A., Saini, M. et al. Effect of ivermectin, amitraz and fipronil on midgut epithelium and digestive enzyme profile in Rhipicephalus microplus ticks (Acari: Ixodidae). Exp Appl Acarol 92, 851–870 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10493-024-00913-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10493-024-00913-8