Soldado Virus (Hughes Group) from 'Ornithodoros (Alectorobius) Capensis' (Ixodoidea: Argasidae) Infesting sooty Tern Colonies in the Seychelles, Indian Ocean.

摘要

In the summer of 1973, about 5,000 pairs of adult Sooty Terns abandoned a specific part of their breeding grounds on Bird Island in the Seychelles. Incubated eggs and newly hatched chicks were left unattended and the area was not reoccupied in 1974. Numerous Ornithodoros (Alectorobius) capensis occurred in the deserted part in both years, but few or none in the area where bird breeding was normal. In 1973 and 1974, Soldado (SOL) virus (Hughes serogroup) was isolated from the ticks taken on Bird Island from the ground and from sick and not visibly sick chicks of the Sooty Tern, and also from nests of the Blue-faced Booby on Des Noeufs Island. When ticks from the ground and from Sooty Tern chicks were fed on domestic chicks, they transmitted SOL virus and caused the death of their hosts.