Haemaphysalis leachi, the yellow dog tick, is a hard-bodied tick of the genus Haemaphysalis. It is also known as African dog tick, or simply as dog tick in many parts of the world.[1]
It is rather cosmopolitan species found throughout Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Cote D'Ivoire, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe.[2]
It is an obligate ectoparasite of many wild and domestic mammals such as domestic and wild carnivores, small rodents, and cattle. It is also a potential vector of boutonneuse fever and canine babesiosis.[3]
In the yellow dog tick's lifecycle, it attaches itself to three hosts. When the host, such as a dog, starts to scratch, the female tick starts to produce a dog-repelling allomone, which enables it to survive longer on the host.[4]