A One-Month Survey on Infestation of Ixodidae (Acari: Ixodida) Ticks Collected from Dogs in the Robat Karim Region, Tehran Province, Iran

Objective: The main objective of this study is to investigate the infestation of Ixodidae ticks in herd and stray dogs in Robat Karim region in Tehran province, Iran. Ticks are one of the most important external parasites in dogs that can cause various diseases by feeding on the blood of their hosts. Also, the increase in the number of stray dogs in the cities is one of the most important problems, especially in the outskirts of the cities, and the identification of the tick fauna in the area is very important.Material and method: In total, a random sampling was conducted on 83 dogs (17 herd dogs and 66 stray dogs) from 14 urban and rural points in the Robat Karim region of Tehran Province, Iran, between September 1st and September 30th, 2023. After transferring the samples to the entomology laboratory, various species were identified.Results: A total of 434 Ixodidae ticks from 2 genera and 4 different species were identified from 72 infested dogs. The highest frequency was related to Rhipicephalus sanguineus (64.28%), Rhipicephalus bursa (17.28%), and the lowest frequency was related to Rhipicephalus turanicus (11.29%), Hyalomma marginatum (7.14%). Examining the age variable showed that there is a significant difference (p≤0.05) in the frequency of tick infestation in different ages and showed that 44.23% of the total isolated ticks belonged to dogs aged 1-3 years.Conclusions: Such research, which deals with the identification and investigation of species diversity and the distribution of different species of ticks in a specific geographical area, will lead to better and more accurate decisions by the medical and veterinary community to control and prevent the spread of diseases transmitted by ticks. Studies similar to our work should be done in other regions of Iran to determine the level of tick infestation in dogs throughout Iran and the results of these studies can be used in strategic tick control programs.