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The first cold weather and frosts are the trigger for cases of Karoo tick paralysis. The Karoo Paralysis Tick (Ixodes rubucundus) produces a salivary toxin that affects nerve transmission and thus causes paralysis especially in sheep and goats but also sometimes in calves and antelope, such as gemsbok/oryx.
The tick is found in hilly areas of the northern cape, the Free State and patchily in Mpumalanga, especially on the cooler southern slopes where overgrazing has resulted in the encroachment of unpalatable shrubs (such as “besembos,” “taaibos,” “renosterbos”) and sour grasses (“suurpol”).
This vegetation provides an ideal habitat for the 3-host tick (Ixodes rubicundus) with its long lifecycle where the hosts of the immature ticks are elephant shrews, the red rock rabbit, caracal, and the mountain reedbuck. The adults feed on livestock from February to November with the peak incidence of paralysis occurring after the first frosts in April and May.
Click on these links to the NAHF website for more information:
https://nahf.co.za/safesameat-animalhealth-footandmouth-biosecurity-post-2-awareness/
https://nahf.co.za/foot-and-mouth-disease-nahf-warns-against-reckless-movement-of-livestock/
https://nahf.co.za/safesameat-animalhealth-footandmouth-biosecurity-post-1-awareness/
https://nahf.co.za/media-dalrrd-foot-and-mouth-disease/
https://nahf.co.za/press-release-the-national-animal-health-forum-new-vision-fmd/
https://nahf.co.za/foot-and-mouth-disease-alert-posts-gauteng-april-2022/
https://nahf.co.za/disease-reports-updated-march-2022/
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