Omithodoros
soft ticks have a characteristic full oval body shape.
Relapsing fever is a worldwide disease caused by several species of spirochetes (genus Borrelia) that are carried by
soft ticks of the genus Ornithodoros.
Although it is known that
soft ticks are the only vector for TBRF, no
soft ticks were found or trapped.
Within this phylum, three families of ticks are currently recognized in the world: 1) Ixodidae (hard ticks), 2) Argasidae (
soft ticks), and 3) Nuttalliellidae (a small, curious, little-known group with some characteristics of both hard and
soft ticks).
The first, Argasidae, is commonly known as "
soft ticks" while the second family, Ixodidae, represents the "hard ticks."
They are classified as hard ticks and
soft ticks, depending on the consistency of their covering cuticles.
Ticks are then singled out under the superfamily Ixodoidea and then divided into two distinct subfamilies, Argasidae (
soft ticks) and Ixodidae (hard ticks).
"But it's a leap of faith at this point to extrapolate from
soft ticks to the deer [Lyme disease] tick," cautions Richard Endris of Merck Sharp & Dohme in Rahway, N.J., who served as an entomological consultant on the study.
These
soft ticks typically live in the nests of rodents such as ground squirrels, tree squirrels, and chipmunks in coniferous forests at elevations between 1,500 and 8,000 feet (457 and 2,438 meters) (5).
Tick paralysis (TP) is only transmitted by blood-feeding gravid adult female ticks by an incompletely characterized neurotoxin produced by the tick's salivary glands.11 Ticks are classified into three families: (1) the Ixodidae, or hard ticks; (2) the Argasidae, or
soft ticks; and (3) the Nuttalliellidae, a much lesser known family, with characteristics of both hard and
soft ticks.
As examples, Chapter 1 lists information on arthropods in this order, "
soft ticks ...