Molecular Identification of Fleas Causing Infestation in Goats, Investigation of Vector Potential as well as Mutations Associated with Insecticide Resistance
Project no. 20233 · Status: Kapanmış · 2019
Summary
Fleas (Order Siphonaptera) are small, laterally flattened, wingless holometabolous insects. These insects cause huge economic losses because of flea infestation in livestock such as goats that have an economical importance in Turkey. In livestock such as sheep and goat, flea bites give rise to many clinical signs such as severe itching, hair loss, and in advanced cases acanthosis, hyperpigmentation, and hyper-keratinization depending on the frequency of exposure, duration of infestation, presence of secondary infection, and degree of hypersensitivity. In addition, fleas are both veterinary and medically important vectors as they can transmit very important diseases such as typhus, tularemia and plague during blood sucking. In literature, there is no sufficient data about flea species that infest goats in Turkey. Therefore, in this project, it was aimed to identify the flea samples (n: 162) collected from goats in farms that have serious clinical problems associated with flea infestation, to investigate the vector potential of fleas and, to reveal whether fleas have insecticide resistance for pyrethroid. According to the results obtained, both microscopic and molecular methods showed that all of the flea samples were Ctenocephalides felis. In addition, 8 of the flea samples were positive for Rickettsia spp. Francisella tularensis and Yersinia pestis were not detected in flea samples. Among two mutations associated with pyrethroid resistance, the frequencies of T929V and L1014 mutations was 92.6% and 95.7%. As a result, the flea species causing flea infestations in goats in Bornova district was Ctenocephalides felis. These fleas also had a potential for the transmission of Rickettsia spp. In addition, the most of the fleas analyzed had pyrethroid resistance and therefore, the use of pyrethroid in the struggling with fleas was thought to should be conducted in under control.