Rearing of Boophilus microplus (Acarina: Ixodidae) on the Laboratory Rabbit

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Abstract
Efforts were made to rear the cattle tick, Boophilus microplus (Canestrini) on the rabbit, Oryctolagus cuniculus (L.), to provide more suitable hosts than bovines for laboratory investigations. Tick attachment favored the belly area, and larval attachment was greater when the skin was pretreated with sodium pentachlorphenate than when untreated. Larval and nymphal survival were estimated at 10 and 20%, respectively, and these stages were similar in size to bovine-fed specimens. Developmental periods of 22–32 days for engorged females and 22–28 days for egg hatching were similar to those periods required by bovine-reared specimens, but the size of engorged females and egg production were considerably smaller. Female production was never more than 1.2 and 5.6% of the total larvae applied to normal and cortisone-injected rabbits, respectively, but ticks from cortisoned rabbits were generally larger, heavier, and laid more eggs than their counterparts reared on normal rabbits. Difficulties are discussed in assessment of eosinophil cell counts on rabbits as a guide to dosage and frequency of cortisone treatment, in prevention of natural bacterial infections which may cause death of the hosts, and in problems of innate and acquired immunity by rabbits to single or repeated exposure to tick feeding. For these reasons, it was concluded that the common laboratory rabbit is not suitable as a standard host for rearing this tick.

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