| Proteins of eggs, larvaes, nymphs of Haemaphysalis qinghaiensis were analyzed with SDS ?PAGE and Western blotting in order to ascertain whether there are differences in polypeptides and characteristics of antigen of H. qinghaiensis isolated from sheep. SDS ?PAGE indicated that 7 polypeptide bands were shown in the lane of eggs, 16 bands of larvae and 14 bands of nymphs . There were differences in the number, content and molecular weight of polypeptides among different stages and 4 bands were shared, but there were more shared bands between the neighbor growth stages. Western blotting suggested that there was obvious reaction band at 56KD to the sera from sheep infested with all stages of H. qinghaiensis and at 97KD to the sera sheep injected with ground material from ticks. However, the difference in the pattern resulted from sera of sheep injected with ground material of four-growth stages was not conspicuous. The antibody dynamics after infestation or injection were studied.The cut-off value was determined by the mean of negative control plus three standard deviation. The antibody level of sheep experimentally?and naturally reached two peaks in two naturally infected sheep. The first peak was reached between March and June and the highest value was 0.539 and the other observed between October and November and the peak value was not significant, and remain between 0.3-0.4. The antibody level of sheep experimentally once arose high level at 20-60 days and reached peak value (OD=0.635) at 30th day, the antibody level decreased gradually since the 50th day. While the antibody level of the sheep experimentally two times reached peak value (OD=0.565) at 30th day and kept high level (OD>0.5) till 210 day.The life history of H.qinghaiensis was studied in laboratory. The experiments revealed that the life cycle of H. qinghaiensis is 138-217 days and develops only one generation in a year. The period of hatching is 28-40 days. The larvae usually remain attached on the hosts for 7-11 days and the molting time of engorged nymph is 26-51 days. The time which elapses between dropping of the gorged female from host and the commencement of oviposition and the time of oviposition are markedly influenced by temperature, being 4-6 days and 13-17 days respectively at 28癈 and the female usually remain attached for 12-17 days. The diapause of H.qinghaiensis is obvious. Most of the female ticks engorged in July will diapause and most of the larvae, nymph^ and adults after September will do. The longevity of the unfed ticks is very marked. The larvae can survive for 170-200 days, nymph for 180-310 days and adults for 200-600 days without taking any blood meal at room temperature. |
