Studies were conducted into the development of anti-tick vaccines against two tick species, namely Boophilus anniilatus Say, 1821 and Argas persicus (Oken) 1818, which, respectively, are responsible for high economic losses in the cattle and chicken industries in Egypt. Repeated infestation of spring chicken with Argas persicus females stimulated 35.9 % resistance to tick feeding compared to 20.4 % in controls. This resistance was associated with the presence of antibody activity to tick salivary gland antigens. There was increase of both the chicken serum total protein and the number of protein bands separated by SDS-PAGE, which suggested an increase in immunoglobulins. Chicken resistance to tick feeding was also induced by repeated injection (vaccination) with crude Argas persicus salivary gland antigens, with intramascular injection being more efficient at inducing immunity than subcutaneous injection.

Prolonged infestation with Boophilus annulatus ticks induced immunity in cattle. Salivary gland and gut crude extracts of cattle exposed to the ticks contained antigenic proteins, with dominant 66 and 150 KDa glycoproteins. Antibodies against the two extracts or PAGE-separated antigens were detected in cattle that resisted tick feeding. Cell-mediated immunity (CMI) was also detected. The immune response was strong in non-infested Bos indicus and Bos indicus × Bos taurus Linneaeus, 1766 crossbreeds with low infestation, and weak in heavily infested Bos taurus.

A simple, rapid and low-cost method for the isolation of high molecular weight DNA from small amounts of cells or tissue is described. The method does not require liquid nitrogen, proteinase K or costly buffers. This method was successfully applied in the isolation and purification of DNA from eggs of Hyalomma excavatum, H. dromedarii, Argas persicus, A. hermanii and Boophilus annulatus, in addition to Escherichia coli, actinomycetes (Nocardia sp.) and leaves of soybean (Glycine max L.). The DNA concentration was calculated from the optical density (OD) value at wavelength 260 nm and the ratios OD260/OD280 and OD260/OD280 determined. The quality and amount of DNA obtained by this method were comparable to those of DNA isolated from equal amounts of material using a commercial genomie DNA purification kit.