Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Further evidence for geographic differentiation in R. appendiculatus (Acari: Ixodidae) from Eastern and Southern provinces of Zambia

  • Published:
Experimental and Applied Acarology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Studies in the biology, ecology and behaviour of R. appendiculatus in Zambia have shown considerable variation within and between populations often associated with their geographical origin. We studied variation in the mitochondrial COI (mtCOI) gene of adult R. appendiculatus ticks originating from the Eastern and Southern provinces of Zambia. Rhipicephalus appendiculatus ticks from the two provinces were placed into two groups on the mtCOI sequence data tree. One group comprised all haplotypes of specimens from the Eastern province plateau districts of Chipata and Petauke. The second group consisted of a single haplotype of specimens from the Southern province districts and Nyimba, an Eastern province district on the fringes of the valley. This variation provides additional evidence to the earlier observations in the 12S rDNA and ITS2 data for the geographic subdivision of R. appendiculatus from Southern province and Eastern province plateau. The geographic subdivision further corresponds with differences in body size and diapause between R. appendiculatus from these geographic areas. The possible implications of these findings on the epidemiology of East Coast fever (ECF) the disease for which R. appendiculatus is one of the vectors are discussed.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Avise JC (2000) Phylogeography: the history and formation of species. Harvard University Press, Cambridge and London

    Google Scholar 

  • Berkvens DL, Pegram RG, Brandt JRA (1995) A study of the diapausing behaviour of Rhipicephalus appendiculatus and R. zambeziensis under quasi-natural conditions in Zambia. Med Vet Entomol 9:307–315

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Berkvens DL, Geysen DM, Chaka G, Madder M, Brandt JRA (1998) A survey of the Ixodid ticks parasitizing cattle in the Eastern Province of Zambia. Med Vet Entomol 12:234–240

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Billiouw M (2005) The epidemiology of bovine theileriosis in the eastern province of Zambia. PhD thesis, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

  • Boom R, Sol CJA, Salimans MMM, Jansen CL, Wertheim-van Dillen PME, Van Der Noordaa J (1990) Rapid and simple method of purification of nucleic acids. J Clin Microbiol 28:495–503

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Boom R, Sol C, Beld M, Weel J, Goudsmit J, Wertheim-van Dillen PME (1999) Improved silica-guanidiniumthiocyanate DNA isolation procedure based on selective binding of bovine alpha-casein to silica particles. J Clin Microbiol 37:615–619

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Chaka G, Billiouw M, Geysen DM, Berkvens DL (1999) Spatial and temporal variation in Rhipicephalus appendiculatus size in eastern Zambia. Trop Med Int Health 4:A43–A48

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Chaka G, Madder M, Speybroeck N, Tempia S, Tona K, Berkvens D (2001) Determination of physiological age of Rhipicephalus appendiculatus (Acari: Ixodidae). Syst Appl Acarol 10:1–16

    Google Scholar 

  • Chaka G (2001) Eco-physiology of Rhipicephalus appendiculatus (Acari: Ixodidae) in eastern Zambia. PhD Thesis, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp (ITMA), Antwerp, Belgium, pp 89–105

  • Madder M (1999) Behavioural Diapause in Rhipicephalus appendiculatus Neumann (Acari: Ixodidae), PhD Thesis, Ghent University, pp 109–122

  • Madder M, Speybroeck N, Brandt J, Tirry L, Hodek I, Berkvens D (2002) Geographic variation in diapause response of adult Rhipicephalus appendiculatus ticks. Exp Appl Acarol 27:209–221

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • McLain DK, Wesson DM, Olivier JH Jr, Collins FH (1995) Variation in ribosomal DNA internal transcribed spacer 1 among Eastern populations of Ixodes scapularis (Acari: Ixodidae). J Med Entomol 32:353–360

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Mtambo J, Van Bortel W, Madder M, Roelants P, Backeljau T (2006) Comparison of preservation methods of Rhipicephalus appendiculatus (Acari:Ixodidae) for reliable DNA amplification by PCR. Exp Appl Acarol 38:189–199

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Mulumba M, Speybroeck N, Billiouw M, Berkvens DL, Geysen DM, Brandt JRA (2000) Transmission of theileriosis in the traditional sector in the southern province of Zambia during 1995–1996. Trop Animal Health Prod 38:303–314

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nicholas KB, Nicholas HB Jr (1997) GeneDoc: a tool for editing and annotating multiple sequence alignments. Distributed by author. http://www.psc.edu/biomed/genedoc/gddl.htm

  • Norval RAI, Perry BD, Young AS (1992) The epidemiology of theileriosis in Africa. Academic Press, London, pp 99

    Google Scholar 

  • Ronquist F, Huelsenbeck JP (2003) MRBAYES: Bayesian phylogenies under mixed models. Bioinformatics 19:1572–1574

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Pegram RG, Perry BD, Musisi FL, Mwanaumo B (1986) Ecology and phenology of ticks in Zambia: seasonal dynamics in cattle. Exp Appl Acarol 2:25–45

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Posada D, Crandall KA (1998) Modeltest: testing the model of DNA substitution. Bioinformatics 14:817–818

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Speybroeck N, Madder M, Van Den Bossche P, Mtambo J, Berkvens N, Chaka G, Mulumba M, Brandt J, Tirry L, Berkvens D (2002) Distribution and phenology of ixodid ticks in Southern Zambia. Med Vet Entomol 16:430–441

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Speybroeck N, Madder M, Thulke HH, Mtambo J, Tirry L, Chaka G, Marcotty T, Berkvens D (2004) Variation in body size in the tick complex Rhipicephalus appendiculatus/Rhipicephalus zambeziensis. J vector Ecol 29:347–354

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Swofford DL (2003) PAUP* phylogenetic analysis using parsimony (*and other methods). Sinauer Associates, Sunderland, MA

    Google Scholar 

  • Tempia S (1997) Comparison of the vectorial capacity of Rhipicephalus appendiculatus (Acari: Ixodidae) nymphs and adults originating from eastern and southern provinces of Zambia infected by Theileria parva Katete stock. M.Sc. Thesis 65, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp (ITMA), Belgium

  • Thompson JD, Gibson TJ, Plewniak F, Jeanmougin F, Higgins DG (1997) The ClustalX windows interface: flexible strategies for multiple sequence alignment aided by quality analysis tools. Nucleic Acids Res 25:4876–4882

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Walker JB, Keirans JE, Horak IG (2000) The Genus Rhipicephalus (Acari: Ixodidae): a guide to the brown ticks of the world. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work was funded by the Belgian Technical Co-operation through the “Assistance to the Veterinary Services of Zambia (ASVEZA) project in the Southern Province. We thank the farmers of the two provinces for their co-operation. Special thanks to Mr Geff Mukwalantila without whose commitment collections from Petauke and Nyimba would have not been possible.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Veterinary and Livestock Development, P.O. Box 670050, Mazabuka, Zambia

    Jupiter Mtambo

  2. Department of Animal Health, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Nationalestraat 155, 2000, Antwerp, Belgium

    Jupiter Mtambo, Maxime Madder & Dirk Berkvens

  3. Department of Parasitology – Entomology Section, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Nationalestraat 155, 2000, Antwerp, Belgium

    Wim Van Bortel

  4. Department of Veterinary and Livestock Development, P.O. Box 510155, Chipata, Zambia

    George Chaka

  5. Department of Invertebrates – Malacology Section, Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Vautierstraat 29, 1000, Brussels, Belgium

    Thierry Backeljau

  6. Department of Biology, Evolutionary Biology Group, University of Antwerp, Groenenborgerlaan 171, 2020, Antwerp, Belgium

    Thierry Backeljau

Authors
  1. Jupiter Mtambo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Maxime Madder
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Wim Van Bortel
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. George Chaka
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Dirk Berkvens
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Thierry Backeljau
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jupiter Mtambo.

Additional information

Nucleotide sequence data reported in this paper are available in the GenBankTM under the Accession Numbers DQ859259–DQ859266

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Mtambo, J., Madder, M., Van Bortel, W. et al. Further evidence for geographic differentiation in R. appendiculatus (Acari: Ixodidae) from Eastern and Southern provinces of Zambia. Exp Appl Acarol 41, 129–138 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10493-007-9049-2

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10493-007-9049-2

Keywords

Search

Navigation