Brown dog tick spreading around Finland

Helsinki animal hospital fumigated last week

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The brown dog tick (Rhipicephalus sanguineus), which is native to North Africa, is spreading around Finland. This unpleasant pest thrives in dry indoor conditions and is difficult to eradicate.
      Last week, the Veterinary Teaching Hospital of the University of Helsinki had to thoroughly fumigate the premises of the Small Animal Hospital to get rid of the ticks. Experts cannot recall a situation in which an animal hospital would have had to be fumigated over a similar problem.
      "The veterinary hospital took immediate emergency action, because it is not appropriate for a hospital to be the source of a parasitic infestation", said Anu Näreaho, a lecturer on veterinary parasitology at the university.
     
"After the fumigation, a few brown dog ticks were found in the patient ward. They were sent away for study in a glass jar, where there apparently was a spider as well", says the veterinary hospital's director Jussi Anttila. He says that it is not known what dog brought the ticks into the hospital.
      Seppo Saari, a specialist in veterinary infectious diseases at the pharmaceutical company Pfizer, says that dozens of outbreaks of brown dog ticks have emerged in Finland this decade.
      "Every winter there are cases in which it is not enough to treat the dog. A thorough fumigation of the home is needed to get rid of the ticks", Saari says.
      He said that the brown dog ticks were first positively identified in Finland in the 1970s, but the animal has become more widespread in recent years. "We have our own population now, and it has spread around Finland."
      Saari says that the tick now lives and multiplies in people's homes.
      "If you let a dog frolic in a grove of hazelnut trees in the Åland Islands, it might end up with up to ten domestic ticks. However, this is a small number compared with the brown dog tick. A single dog can carry dozens, even hundreds of them, if the situation at home is really out of control."
     
Brown dog ticks can best be seen in the winter. Domestic ticks need moisture to live, and they spend the winters hidden under the snow. The brown dog tick, meanwhile, has adapted to life in the North African desert. It is also common in the Mediterranean.
      "North African dryness is perfectly recreated in centrally-heated homes in this country. One can say that the African tick has found its own ecological niche there", Saari explains.
      A mature brown dog tick can live for up to a year and a half without a blood meal, and can spend the time looking for a suitable host.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Brown Dog Tick - University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences

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