Interaction and control of mammalian ectoparasites using Entomopathogenic Fungi (EF)

蜱是牛、马和其他家畜和野生动物的主要害虫，也会在世界范围内攻击人类，包括发展中国家和发达国家。它们是几种人类和兽医重要疾病的媒介，包括无形体病、巴贝虫病、埃里希体病、莱姆疏螺旋体病、泰勒虫病、蜱传脑炎和许多其他疾病。目前，蜱虫控制主要依靠使用化学杀螨剂。蜱虫管理的替代工具，如生物防治，是非常可取的，因为蜱虫对常见合成农药的抗性问题日益增加，因为生态毒理学问题（如家庭，动物产品）和对宿主或非目标生物体的负面影响。至于今天，商业生物防治剂，其中包括微生物，是稀缺的控制任何体外寄生虫。在建议的研究中，我们建议研究外寄生虫-病原体相互作用的一些基本方面，并开发应用程序包，同时保持对吸气三边合作的协同作用的重点。昆虫病原真菌（Entomopathogenic Fungi，EF）是目前最有研究价值和应用前景的生防真菌。该项目旨在：I）选择在中东气候条件下有效的高毒力EF菌株，II）使用直接和间接污染策略研究其效率，III）遵循受感染蜱虫种群内的自然分布并研究对非靶生物的副作用IV）通过与选择性和低毒杀螨剂组合来提高EF效率。

Ticks are major pests of cattle, horses, and other domestic and wild animals and attack humans too, worldwide including developing and developed countries. They serve as vectors of several diseases of human and veterinary importance, including anaplasmosis, babesiosis, ehrlichiosis, Lyme borreliosis, theileriosis, tick-borne encephalitis and many others. Tick control is, at present, largely based on the use of chemical acaricides. Alternative tools for tick management, such as biological control, are highly desirable because of increasing problems with tick resistance to common synthetic pesticides and because of eco-toxicological concerns (e.g. homes, animal products) and negative effects on the host or on non-target organism respectively. As for today commercial biocontrol agents, which consist of microbials, are scarce for the control of any ectoparasites. In the suggested study we propose to study some fundamental aspects of ectoparasites-pathogen interactions and to develop application packages while keeping the focus on synergism of the aspirated tri-lateral cooperation. The Entomopathogenic Fungi (EF) are considered as most interesting and promising biocontrol agents. The project aims to I) select highly virulent EF strains effective under the climatic conditions of the Middle East, II) to study their efficiency using direct and indirect contamination strategies, III) to follow natural distribution within infected tick populations and study side effects on non-target organism IV) to enhance EF efficiency by combination with selective and low-toxic acaricides.