Assessment of acaricidal effects of zinc oxide nanoparticles against variois life stage of Argas persicus, (family: Argasidae) following in vitro exposure

Argaspersicus, family Argasidae, is soft tick that has incurred several difficulties to poultry industry. Besides, resistance to available anti-parasitic agents has intensified concerns. In the past few years, Zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO-NPs) as a novel and marvelous material have attracted great interest. One of their outstanding properties is antimicrobial effect. The current research was conducted to assess possible acaricidal impacts of ZnO-NPs on a prevalent tick, A. persicus. Moreover, malondialdehyde (MDA) content as a marker of lipid peroxidation and nitric oxide (NO) level as a marker of nitrosative stress were measured. Egg, larvae and adult ticks were incubated with various concentrations of the nanoparticle (1, 2, 4, 8 ppm). Then, the rate of mortality and hatch inhibition was recorded in constant intervals. The results showed that mortality and hatch inhibition increase in concentration and time dependent manner. MDA and NO level also increased in same pattern. It can be concluded that ZnO-NPs destroy ticks and inhibit egg hatch via induction of oxidative/nitrosative stress.