Background: Indian tick typhus (ITT) is a type of spotted fever caused by intracellular Rickettsial pathogens, specifi­cally Rickettsia conorii subspecies indica, which exhibits unique clinical symptoms in humans compared to other spot­ted fevers. Human cases have been reported from several states based on hospital-based studies. However, research on the detection of these pathogens in ticks is limited.
Methods: A tick survey was conducted in different agro-climatic regions of Tamil Nadu. A total of 3,016 ticks belong­ing to 12 species in 532 pools were tested for the presence of the groEL gene of Rickettsia conorii indica using indige­nously designed primers.
Results:  Of the 532 pools tested, 44 pools (8.27 %) were positive for the groEL gene, resulting in an overall Minimum Infection Rate (MIR) of 1.50 (95% CI=1.11–1.98). The bacteria were identified in all agro-climatic regions except in the Cauvery delta region. The MIR of the screened tick species were 4.11 (95% CI=1.73–8.43) in Rhipicephalus mi­croplus, 1.34 (95% CI=0.90–1.92) in Haemaphysalis bispinosa, and 2.85 (95% CI=1.56–4.83) in Haemaphysalis inter­media.  The MIR of the ticks collected from cattle was 0.34 in cattle (95% CI=0.15–0.67), 5.50 (95% CI=3.97–7.44) in goats, and 1.37 (95% CI=0.36–3.71) in sheep.
Conclusion: The present study reports that the groEL gene as preliminary marker for the detection of the ITT-causing pathogen in field-collected ticks. The positivity of the groEL gene in the salivary glands needs further experimental con­firmation. The primer needs further evaluation by comparing with MLST (Multilocus sequence typing) sequencing.

Background: Aedes aegypti is a major vector of numerous arboviruses, including dengue, Zika, chikungunya and yel­low fever. This study aimed to establish a standardized and practical procedure for maintaining and propagating an Ae. aegypti colony under controlled insectary conditions in Bandar Abbas, Iran.
Methods: Environmental parameters were routinely monitored. Larvae were reared with an appropriate diet under a regular feeding schedule, while adult mosquitoes were provided with a sucrose solution and blood meals. The correla­tion between the duration of egg paper drying and the hatching percentage was evaluated. Hatching rates were com­pared across three media: cooled boiled water, yeast and larval food.
Results: A strong negative correlation was observed between drying duration and hatching percentage, with a Pearson correlation of −0.818 (p< 0.001). Gradual drying of egg papers over a period of two days resulted in a hatching rate of over 90% without any hatching stimulant. No significant differences in hatching rates were found among the three me­dia, as indicated by F= 0.601 (p= 0.578). In a novel observation, female mosquitoes were found to deposit ap­proxi­mately 20−30% of their eggs directly on the water surface inside ovitraps under insectary conditions in Iran.
Conclusion: This study provides a reliable, low‑cost model for rearing Ae. aegypti in research insectaries and facilitates future studies on vector control.

Vector-borne diseases remain among the most persistent and dynamic threats to glob­al health. According to the World Health Organ­ization (WHO), these diseases account for more than 700,000 deaths an­nually and im­pose a dis­proportionate bur­den on tropical and subtropi­cal populations, particularly in low- and mid­dle-income countries (1). Mos­quitoes, ticks, sand flies, triatomines, black flies and other hema­tophagous arthropods transmit pathogens re­spon­sible for malaria, dengue, lymphatic fila­riasis, leishmaniasis, Chagas disease, yellow fe­ver, Zika, chikungunya, tick-borne encephali­tis and numerous emerging zoon­oses. Rapid urbani­zation, globalization, en­vironmental deg­rada­tion, climate change and insecticide re­sistance are reshaping the epidemiology and geographic distribution of these infections, in­creasing both their incidence and unpredict­ability (2, 3).

We report a historical record of the reptile-associated tick Amblyomma helvolum Koch, 1844 parasitizing the equatorial spitting cobra Naja sumatrana Laurenti, 1768, based on a preserved specimen housed in the herpetolog­ical collection of the Naturhistorisches Muse­um Wien (Natural History Museum Vienna, NMW), Austria.