Comparative determination of tick burden and diversity in intensively managed wildlife estates under those with and without prescribed burning.

Prescribed burning in ex-situ conservancies ecosystems significantly reduces tick burden and diversity. In Zambia, the role of ticks in zoonotic disease transmission is not well described, partly, due to limited available information on tick burden and diversity in ex-situ conservancies. This study aimed to compare three management systems that are currently used to control ticks in ex-situ conservancies. Tick samples were collected between October 2021 and April 2022, a total number of 267 ticks were collected from the ground/vegetation in three tick management systems early burning, late burning and no burning in 36 transects across 3 ex-situ conservancies in Central, Lusaka and Southern provinces. These ticks were morphologically identified at the University of Zambia, School of Veterinary Medicine, parasitology laboratory. Collected ticks belonged to 11 species: Rhipicephalus species, (n=6), (Rhipicephalus appendiculatus, Rhipicephalus evertsi, Rhipicephalus microplus, Rhipicephalus decoloratus, Rhipicephalus sanguineus, Rhipicephalus pulcherus, Rhipicephalus zambeziensis); Amblyomma species (n=2), (Amblyomma variagatum, Amblyomma poposum), and Hyalomma species (n=2) (Hyalomma Rufipes and Hyalomma truncatum). The most common species were R. evertsi (19.4 %), Amblyomma variagatum (14%), and Hyalomma truncatum (11%). The highest species diversity, and burden was found to be highest in no-burn management system (p<0.01), whilst no significant differences were observed between late and early burning systems (P>0.776) based on Bartlett’s test for equal variance. To a large extent, these results have elucidated for the first time in Zambia that the use of fire as a management tool effectively reduces tick diversity and burden in closed ex-situ conservancy areas. Additionally, the results intimate a reduction of ticks in both early and late burning, despite the differences being not significant. The findings of this study have far reaching policy implications when it comes to tick management in ex-situ conservancies, when it comes to adoption of fire as a preferable method in ex-situ conservancies