Preface

This book is intended for students in parasitology, biologists, parasitologists involved in molecular diagnostics of tick-borne diseases, practicing veterinarians, and for others who may require information on ticks and tick-borne diseases.

Ticks transmit a range of pathogens including viruses, bacteria, and protists to vertebrate hosts, including humans and domestic and wild animals. Tick-borne diseases of humans and domestic animals can substantially affect their health and livestock production, respectively. Hence, it is of paramount importance to investigate these ticks and tick-borne diseases, particularly the emerging infections harboured by ticks. When we consider a particular tick-borne disease, it is critical to have a thorough understanding of the vectors involved, biology of vectors, pathogenesis, hosts affected, diagnostic methods, treatment, and control.

In this book, we have put together a collection of chapters focused on different aspects of ticks and tick-borne diseases mainly to provide the reader with novel information in the field, but not the basic generalised information provided by many textbooks. This book includes topics such as high-throughput technologies in diagnosis, discovery of novel tick vaccines, identification of new pathogens transmitted by ticks, and new epidemiological information of certain well-known ticks and tick-borne diseases. Our target audience is the parasitologists, parasitology students, and veterinarians who have a basic knowledge of the details of taxonomy and classification of these ticks and tick-borne diseases, life cycles, diagnosis, treatment, and control. Therefore, the novel findings have been discussed in detail, while basic information is either deliberately omitted or mentioned briefly in the introduction of each of these chapters.

These chapters were authored by parasitologists from all over the world, giving an insight to the reader about the significant ticks and tick-borne diseases prevalent in those particular geographical regions with the local expert's point of view. Each of the chapters have separate reference lists, making it easier for the reader to find additional reading material related to their topic of interest.

I would like to express my gratitude to all the contributors of this book including the authors of the accepted chapters. My special thanks to the Author Service Manager, Ms. Anita Condic, and other staff of IntechOpen publishing for their kind support

**II**

**Chapter 8 153**

The Enigma of Identifying New Cattle Tick Vaccine Antigens

*by Ala E. Tabor*

and great efforts in bringing the book to completion. In addition, I am also thankful to my colleagues, friends, and family for all their support in the fulfilment of this project.

#### **Dr. Muhammad Abubakar**

National Veterinary Laboratory, Park Road, Islamabad, Pakistan

#### **Dr Piyumali K. Perera**

Lecturer, Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka

**1**

Section 1

Tick Borne Infections

Section 1
