Preface

Oct. 9, 2017

Index

Preface
Thiago Fernandes Martins
 
          In Brazil, hard ticks (Acari: Ixodidae) are important vectors of pathogens for humans, domestic and wild animals, and are therefore considered to be arthropods relevant to public health and animal health. In the previous decade, some studies on ticks in wild animals were carried out in the Brazilian Amazonian biome; however, such studies are scarce and fragmented and tick taxonomy and identification is difficult and as a consequence there is little information about their geographic distribution, hosts and the diseases caused by the pathogens transmitted by these ectoparasites, especially in the Brazilian Amazon region.
 
The Brazilian legal Amazon is mostly located in the north of the country, reaching the states of Amazonas, Amapá, Acre, Pará, Rondônia, Roraima, Tocantins and part of the territory of Goiás, Maranhão and Mato Grosso. The Brazilian Amazonian biome, comprising an area of ​​5,033,072 km², which corresponds to 61% of the national territory. Due to its territorial expansion the region of the Amazon rainforest shelters a great biological diversity including amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals that are frequently parasitized by ticks. With a population estimated at about 16.5 million people, 62% of whom live in urban areas and 38% in rural areas, deforestation caused by the urban expansion of cities over forests leads to the proximity of humans to ticks, favoring human parasitism and the appearance of diseases carried by these arthropods. Consequently, ixodids are becoming increasingly relevant as a health problem and in the spread of tick-borne diseases to the population in the country, with Brazilian Macular Fever being the main disease.
 
         These pages are an electronic version of the illustrated taxonomic guide to the ticks collected in the following forest fragments in and around Manaus: Adolpho Ducke Forest Reserve (RFAD),  Federal University of Amazonas campus (UFAM) and the  UFAM experimental plantation.
 
              This is a manual of great importance for the Amazonian biome and the information about these species collected, which are accompanied by detailed illustrations, will be of value to people researching the biology, and ecology of tick-borne diseases, especially with reference to the species of ixodids established within the limits of the Brazilian Central Amazon.