The Caspian red deer, Cervus elaphus maral (Mammalia: Cervidae): a new host record for Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) annulatus (Acari: Ixodidae) in northern Iran

The cattle tick, Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) annulatus (formerly Boophilus annulatus) Say, 1821 is a one-host ixodid tick mostly found on cattle (D’Amico et al. 2017). Artiodactyla (Fam.: Bovidae) are the main hosts (Guglielmone et al. 2014), but occasionally sheep, goats and wild ungulates can support successful completion of the life cycle (Estrada-Peña et al. 2004). Rhipicephalus annulatus is capable of transmitting both B. bigemina and B. bovis (Gray et al. 2019), Anaplasma marginale (Hosseini-Chegeni et al. 2020), Coxiella burnetii (Reye et al. 2012), Ehrlichia ruminantium (Senbill et al.– unpublished GenBank database) and the various pathogenic Rickettsia species (Reye et al. 2012; de Mera et al. 2018). The Caspian red deer (Maral or Noble deer), Cervus elaphus maral (Mammalia: Cervidae) inhabits mountainous regions of Africa, Asia, Eurasia, Europe (Lovari et al. 2018) and lives in grasslands of Hyrcanian forested areas in northern Iran (Kiabi et al. 2004). Lisar, protected area, Guilan province is located in the western corner of the Hyrcanian forests of Talesh county (37° 58' 36.9" N, 48° 45' 02.7" E), and is one of the potential corridors for large mammals to the Caucasus ecoregion (Soofi et al. 2017). Red deer is categorized as a protected species by Iran Department of Environment, and least concern (LC) by the International unio‎n for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) red list (Lovari et al. 2018). Every year, a number of them are hunted and their habitats are at risk of destruction. Ticks infest every class of terrestrial vertebrates; mammals, birds, various reptiles, and even amphibians. The tick species, Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) annulatus was found in red deer from the Spain. We aimed to present the first tick infestation record of Caspian red deer, C. e. maral by this tick species in northern Iran.