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Title: DIRECT INJURY CAUSED BY ARTHROPODS

Author
item DAY, JONATHAN - UNIV. FLORIDA VERO BEACH
item EDMAN, JOHN - U. MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST
item Kunz, Sidney
item WIKEL, STEPHEN - OKLAHOMA STATE UNIVERSITY

Submitted to: Medical and Veterinary Entomology
Publication Type: Book / Chapter
Publication Acceptance Date: 9/10/1998
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: This book chapter is written as part of a textbook on medical entomology for classroom use to teach college students. This chapter describes the damage that can be caused by insects and ticks feeding on man or animals. If left unattended, the attack of some of these pests can cause severe injury or death to man and animals. This text describes and talks about the various types of injury that can occur.

Technical Abstract: The book chapter describes the direct injury to man and animals by arthropods, and damage that may cause a wide range of both mental and physical symptoms. Damage may result from the arthropod's feeding or stinging. The host may react to the allergens in the arthropods' venom or saliva. A host can become hypersensitive to stings or bites causing life- threatening anaphalactic shock. Biting flies can cause significant blood loss and mortality. Respiratory passages can become blocked by large swarmsof biting flies causing suffocation. The larval stages of certain diptera can cause myiasis that can develop deep in the tissues of the vertebrate host causing severe injury or death.