Animal Health & Veterinary Medicine

Tick-borne diseases have been thought to be important in Medical and Veterinary Medicine. The genus Ornithodoros spp., which is included in Family Argasidae, is usually associated with wild animals including seabirds and it was difficult to investigate because of the location of seabirds’ nests are inaccessible. However, Ornithodoros spp. has been known for the vector of many diseases including African swine fever virus. In this study, nest, soil and litter of seabirds were collected from 10 islands in western and southern part of the Republic of Korea from July to August in 2017, known for breeding places of migratory birds, to investigate Ornithodoros species. Each time a survey was conducted, less than 10 nest, soil and litter of seabirds was collected from one island for the conservation of islands environment. Ticks were collected from nest, soil and litter of seabirds using Tullgren funnel. In total, 28 Ornithodoros spp. ticks from 70 seabird's (black-tailed gull, Larus crassirotris; and band-rumped strom petrel, Oceanodroma castro) nesting soil and litter in 4 islands (Chilsan-island, Chilbal-island, Gugul-island and Nan-island) were collected. To identify the species of Ornithodoros spp. ticks, the sequence of Ornithodoros spp. from our study showed 95% identity to Ornithodoros sawaii (KT372790) and Ornithodoros capensis (AB076080) based on 16S rRNA and 99% identity to Ornithodoros capensis (KR907243) based on 18S rRNA. Previous studies have found Ornithodoros sp. only in Chilsan Island, this study found Ornithodoros spp., in four uninhabited islands that are breeding places of migratory birds in western and southern islands of the Republic of Korea.