Tick-borne pathogens in ticks (Acari: Ixodidae) collected from various domestic and wild hosts in Corsica (France), a Mediterranean island environment.

Corsica is a mountainous French island in the north-west of the Mediterranean Sea presenting a large diversity of natural environments where many interactions between humans, domestic animals and wild fauna occur. Despite this favourable context, tick-borne pathogens (TBPs) have not systematically been investigated. In this study, a large number of TBPs were screened in ticks collected over a period of one year from domestic and wild hosts in Corsica.

Research on Piroplasmorida and other tick-borne agents: Are we going the right way?

The use of molecular diagnostic techniques in the study of ticks and tick-borne agents has increased dramatically in the last few decades, and while conferring the advantages of rapidity, sensitivity and accuracy, they can also be misused by the research community, who have shown an increasing overreliance on the data they produce, often completely abandoning more traditional approaches such as microscopy and serology. In this short review examples are provided of 'findings' that are apparently at odds with well-established eco-epidemiological knowledge, ranging from descriptions of new species of pathogens to their detection in new hosts and ticks, often immediately incriminated as new reservoir hosts and vector ticks, respectively. Most examples have been taken from the Piroplasmorida or "piroplasm" species as they are often called.

Ticks (Acari: Ixodidae) infesting cattle and some other domestic and wild hosts on the French Mediterranean island of Corsica.

Background: Corsica is a mountainous French island in the north-western Mediterranean presenting a large diversity of natural environments where many interactions between domestic animals and wild fauna occur. Despite a favourable context for ticks and tick-borne diseases (TBDs), the tick fauna of Corsica has not systematically been investigated.

Methods: For one year (May 2014-May 2015), a survey of ticks infesting cattle was performed in the three Corsican cattle slaughterhouses.

First report of the tick Hyalomma scupense (natural vector of bovine tropical theileriosis) on the French Mediterranean island of Corsica.

Hyalomma scupense (Acari, Ixodidae) is a common tick species found in several areas in North Africa, Asia and South Europe and an efficient natural vector of bovine tropical theileriosis (Theileria annulata), a livestock disease with an important economic impact. For one year, 1938 ticks were collected on cattle in several Corsican slaughterhouses; 168 of them were morphologically identified as H. scupense.

[A legend of tropical veterinary medicine: Dick Zwart].

An overview is given of the achievements of Professor Dr. D. Zwart (1930-2005).

Ticks of the Central African Republic.

A review is presented of the ticks of the Central African Republic (C.A.R.

[Tropical veterinary medicine and education in The Netherlands].

in this lecture an overview is given of the development of tropical veterinary medicine and education in The Netherlands after the Dutch colonial period. The starting point is the development of tropical veterinary medicine in general, especially in Europe and Africa. It is pointed out that just now it is very important to have specialists in tropical diseases not only in the tropics but also in the western world since globalization involves the import of a lot of tropical diseases.

Polyphasic taxonomy.

Several organisms from a number of prokaryotic and eukaryotic groups have presented problems for systematists for a long time. Both phenotypic and genotypic methods for sorting out these relationships have been employed. There are limitations with each method when taken alone.

Babesia--a historical overview.

The history of the genus Babesia is briefly outlined. The classical differences with the main other genus of non-pigment-forming hemoparasites, Theileria, are the absence of extra-erythrocytic multiplication (schizogony) in Babesia and the cycle in the vector tick, which includes transovarial transmission in Babesia but only transstadial transmission in Theileria. Also, the multiplication in the red cell of Babesia, by budding, most often results in two daughter cells (merozoites), while that of Theileria gives four merozoites, often as a Maltese cross.

A note on Hyalomma nitidum, its distribution and its hosts.

The paper summarises the morphological characteristics, the known geographical distribution and hosts of Hyalomma nitidum, a tick which has never been properly characterised. H. nitidum was first described in Cameroon in 1919, long considered as a synonym of Hyalomma truncatum and recognised as a separate and valid species only since the early 1970s.

On molecular taxonomy: what is in a name?

Gene sequences of small portions of the genome are often used for premature detailed taxonomic changes, neglecting polyphasic taxonomy, which should also consider phenotypical characteristics. Three examples are given: (i) Recently, members of the genera Eperythrozoon and Haemobartonella have been moved, correctly so, from the Rickettsiales to the Mycoplasmatales, but were assigned to the genus Mycoplasma, mostly on the basis of 16S rRNA sequence analysis. Not only is the 16S rRNA sequence similarity between 'classical' Mycoplasma and these species of Eperythrozoon and Haemobartonella less than that between some other well-recognised bacterial genera, but their biological differences amply justify their classification in different genera of the Mycoplasmatales.