Of fungi and ticks: Morphological and molecular characterization of fungal contaminants of a laboratory-reared Ixodes ricinus colony

• DOI: 10.1016/j.ttbdis.2021.101732
• Publication Date: 2021-05-03T17:53:24Z
• Authors: Sarah I. Bonnet; Thierry Blisnick; Charbel Al Khoury; Jacques Guillot
• Keywords: Tick-borne disease

Establishing and maintaining tick colonies in the laboratory is essential for studying their biology pathogen transmission, or development of new control methods. Due to requirement very high humidity, these laboratory-bred are frequently subject fungal contamination. In present study, we aimed identify species that contaminated a laboratory-reared colony Ixodes ricinus through microscopic observation molecular identification. We identified three different taxa isolated from ticks: Aspergillus parasiticus, Penicillium steckii, Scopulariopsis brevicaulis. These usually regarded as environmental saprophytic molds but both direct indirect evidence suggest they could also be considered entomopathogenic fungi. Although do not have any fungi I. this study cause lethal infections ticks, observed once infected, heavy growth coupled with mortality rates potential relevant biological control.