Examination of Competitiveness of Irradiated (Caesium-137) Hyalomma marginatum Males in Copulation

Abstract

We had previously reported in one of our studies that the irradiated males of Hyalomma anatolicum anatolicum were not able to compete with the normal males while mating with the females. In this study, it is aimed to determine the limitations of the competitiveness of irradiated males of H. marginatum in copulation in accordance with their numerical superiority over the nonirradiated males. We also intend to assign the applicable propotions and furthermore we would like to identify the main principles and conditions of possible field examinations. In this study, the male ticks were subjected to gamma radiation with a dose of 10 Gy emitted by a gamma-ray source of Caesium 137. Biological parameters such as feeding periods, weight, number of eggs and larvae hatching from the eggs of female 34 ticks that were placed in rabbit ears together with different numbers of irradiated, nonirradiated or a combination of both irradiated and nonirradiated male ticks were recorded. Reasonable numbers of ticks were employed in order to reach statistically reliable results. In conclusion, statistical analyses showed that the irradiated males of H. marginatum could not compete with the nonirradiated males in the case where these two groups had equal numbers of males. However, data analyzed from the study also deduced that the average number of eggs and larvae of females showed a reduction in trials for cases in which there were more irradiated males and this incident was found to be statistically significant. Finally, we came to the conclusion that our presented results have to be one of the key parameters which must be considered for field applications.