1Department of Veterinary Parasitology, Madras Veterinary College, Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Chennai-600 007, Tamil Nadu, India
2Zoonoses Research Laboratory, Madhavaram Milk Colony, Chennai-51
3Veterinary Clinical Complex, Veterinary College and Research Institute, Tirunelveli
4Department of Bioinformatics and ARIS cell, Madras Veterinary College, Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Chennai-600 007, Tamil Nadu, India
*Corresponding author E-mail: drarul.vet@gmail.com
Online Published on 14 January, 2026.
The objective of this work was to identify the Rhipicephalus sanguineus species prevalent in dogs in Tamil Nadu by using polymerase chain reaction assay followed by sequencing. In this study, 300 semi-engorged ticks were collected each from three different agro-climatical zones such as north (Chennai), west (Namakkal) and south (Madurai) zones of Tamil Nadu, India. All these ticks were identified as R. sanguineus based on morphological keys. Five ticks from each place were dissected out to separate the midgut and the genomic DNA was extracted. Polymerase chain reaction amplification and sequencing were carried out to obtain a 400 bp fragment of the mitochondrial 12S rDNA sequences. The nucleotide sequence showed homology of 99.71% to the sequences of other isolates of R. sanguineus sensu lato available in the GenBank. The analysis confirmed the identity of ticks from three agro-climatical zones of Tamil Nadu as R. sanguineus sensu lato, which has been reclassified as R. linnaei.
Rhipicephalus sanguineus sensu lato, PCR Assay, Midgut, BLAST Analysis
