Native strains of Beauveria bassiana for the control of Rhipicephalus sanguineus sensu lato

Particle and Fibre Toxicology

Domenico Otranto²  Filipe Dantas-Torres¹  Luciana Aguiar Figueredo¹  Daniele Porretta³  Riccardo Paolo Lia²  Rafael Antonio Nascimento Ramos²  Roberta Iatta²  Davide Immediato²  Claudia Cafarchia² 

[1] Department of Immunology, Centro de Pesquisas Aggeu Magalhães (Fiocruz-PE), Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil;Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Bari, Bari, Italy;Department of Environmental Biology, University “La Sapienza”, Rome, Italy

关键词: Vector borne-diseases;    Entomopathogenic fungus;    Rhipicephalus sanguineus s.l.;    Biological control;    Beauveria bassiana;   

Others  :  1181821
DOI  :  10.1186/s13071-015-0693-9

 received in 2015-01-08, accepted in 2015-01-26,  发布年份 2015

【 摘 要 】

Background

Rhipicephalus sanguineus sensu lato ticks are widespread worldwide due to their adaptability to survive under different environmental conditions. They may act as vectors of a wide range of pathogens to humans and animals and their control is based on the use of chemical products on dogs and in the environment. Alternative control strategies, such as the use of entomopathogenic fungi as bio-control agents have also been investigated. The ability of native strains of Beauveria bassiana sensu lato in causing mortality in different tick species (e.g., Amblyomma cajennense and Rhipicephalus microplus) has been demonstrated. However, limited studies have assessed the use of B. bassiana for the control of R. sanguineus s.l. and none of them have employed native strains of this fungus. Here we investigated the pathogenicity of a native strain of B. bassiana (CD1123) against all developmental stages of R. sanguineus s.l..

Methods

Batches of eggs, larvae, nymphs and adult ticks were immersed in a suspension of 10⁷ conidia/ml of B. bassiana s.l., isolated from a R. sanguineus s.l. engorged female. All treatment and control groups were observed for 20 days, and the biological parameters (i.e., mortality, hatching, moulting percentage, pre-oviposition period, oviposition period and rate, eggs production efficiency, reproductive efficiency and fitness indexes) were assessed.

Results

The effect of the B. bassiana strain tested herein on eggs, larvae, nymphs and adults showed a significantly higher mortality than those of the control groups (p < 0.05) at 5 days post-infection. No infected eggs hatched and no infected larvae moulted. Only 15% of infected nymphs moulted into adults. All biological parameters of treated groups differed significantly (p < 0.001) from those of control groups.

Conclusions

This study demonstrates that a suspension containing 10⁷ conidia/ml of a native B. bassiana strain is highly virulent towards all life-cycle developmental stages of R. sanguineus s.l. and may be of potential interest as a biological control agent against these ticks.

【 授权许可】

   
2015 Cafarchia et al.; licensee BioMed Central.

【 图 表 】

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