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Spotted fever Rickettsia species in Hyalomma and Ixodes ticks infesting migratory birds in the European Mediterranean area

BACKGROUND: A few billion birds migrate annually between their breeding grounds in Europe and their wintering grounds in Africa. Many bird species are tick-infested, and as a result of their innate migratory behavior, they contribute significantly to the geographic distribution of pathogens, includi...

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Autores principales: Wallménius, Katarina, Barboutis, Christos, Fransson, Thord, Jaenson, Thomas GT, Lindgren, Per-Eric, Nyström, Fredrik, Olsen, Björn, Salaneck, Erik, Nilsson, Kenneth
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4230250/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25011617
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1756-3305-7-318
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author Wallménius, Katarina
Barboutis, Christos
Fransson, Thord
Jaenson, Thomas GT
Lindgren, Per-Eric
Nyström, Fredrik
Olsen, Björn
Salaneck, Erik
Nilsson, Kenneth
author_facet Wallménius, Katarina
Barboutis, Christos
Fransson, Thord
Jaenson, Thomas GT
Lindgren, Per-Eric
Nyström, Fredrik
Olsen, Björn
Salaneck, Erik
Nilsson, Kenneth
author_sort Wallménius, Katarina
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: A few billion birds migrate annually between their breeding grounds in Europe and their wintering grounds in Africa. Many bird species are tick-infested, and as a result of their innate migratory behavior, they contribute significantly to the geographic distribution of pathogens, including spotted fever rickettsiae. The aim of the present study was to characterize, in samples from two consecutive years, the potential role of migrant birds captured in Europe as disseminators of Rickettsia-infected ticks. METHODS: Ticks were collected from a total of 14,789 birds during their seasonal migration northwards in spring 2009 and 2010 at bird observatories on two Mediterranean islands: Capri and Antikythira. All ticks were subjected to RNA extraction followed by cDNA synthesis and individually assayed with a real-time PCR targeting the citrate synthase (gltA) gene. For species identification of Rickettsia, multiple genes were sequenced. RESULTS: Three hundred and ninety-eight (2.7%) of all captured birds were tick-infested; some birds carried more than one tick. A total number of 734 ticks were analysed of which 353 ± 1 (48%) were Rickettsia-positive; 96% were infected with Rickettsia aeschlimannii and 4% with Rickettsia africae or unidentified Rickettsia species. The predominant tick taxon, Hyalomma marginatum sensu lato constituted 90% (n = 658) of the ticks collected. The remaining ticks were Ixodes frontalis, Amblyomma sp., Haemaphysalis sp., Rhipicephalus sp. and unidentified ixodids. Most ticks were nymphs (66%) followed by larvae (27%) and adult female ticks (0.5%). The majority (65%) of ticks was engorged and nearly all ticks contained visible blood. CONCLUSIONS: Migratory birds appear to have a great impact on the dissemination of Rickettsia-infected ticks, some of which may originate from distant locations. The potential ecological, medical and veterinary implications of such Rickettsia infections need further examination.
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spelling pubmed-42302502014-11-14 Spotted fever Rickettsia species in Hyalomma and Ixodes ticks infesting migratory birds in the European Mediterranean area Wallménius, Katarina Barboutis, Christos Fransson, Thord Jaenson, Thomas GT Lindgren, Per-Eric Nyström, Fredrik Olsen, Björn Salaneck, Erik Nilsson, Kenneth Parasit Vectors Research BACKGROUND: A few billion birds migrate annually between their breeding grounds in Europe and their wintering grounds in Africa. Many bird species are tick-infested, and as a result of their innate migratory behavior, they contribute significantly to the geographic distribution of pathogens, including spotted fever rickettsiae. The aim of the present study was to characterize, in samples from two consecutive years, the potential role of migrant birds captured in Europe as disseminators of Rickettsia-infected ticks. METHODS: Ticks were collected from a total of 14,789 birds during their seasonal migration northwards in spring 2009 and 2010 at bird observatories on two Mediterranean islands: Capri and Antikythira. All ticks were subjected to RNA extraction followed by cDNA synthesis and individually assayed with a real-time PCR targeting the citrate synthase (gltA) gene. For species identification of Rickettsia, multiple genes were sequenced. RESULTS: Three hundred and ninety-eight (2.7%) of all captured birds were tick-infested; some birds carried more than one tick. A total number of 734 ticks were analysed of which 353 ± 1 (48%) were Rickettsia-positive; 96% were infected with Rickettsia aeschlimannii and 4% with Rickettsia africae or unidentified Rickettsia species. The predominant tick taxon, Hyalomma marginatum sensu lato constituted 90% (n = 658) of the ticks collected. The remaining ticks were Ixodes frontalis, Amblyomma sp., Haemaphysalis sp., Rhipicephalus sp. and unidentified ixodids. Most ticks were nymphs (66%) followed by larvae (27%) and adult female ticks (0.5%). The majority (65%) of ticks was engorged and nearly all ticks contained visible blood. CONCLUSIONS: Migratory birds appear to have a great impact on the dissemination of Rickettsia-infected ticks, some of which may originate from distant locations. The potential ecological, medical and veterinary implications of such Rickettsia infections need further examination. BioMed Central 2014-07-10 /pmc/articles/PMC4230250/ /pubmed/25011617 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1756-3305-7-318 Text en Copyright © 2014 Wallménius et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Research
Wallménius, Katarina
Barboutis, Christos
Fransson, Thord
Jaenson, Thomas GT
Lindgren, Per-Eric
Nyström, Fredrik
Olsen, Björn
Salaneck, Erik
Nilsson, Kenneth
Spotted fever Rickettsia species in Hyalomma and Ixodes ticks infesting migratory birds in the European Mediterranean area
title Spotted fever Rickettsia species in Hyalomma and Ixodes ticks infesting migratory birds in the European Mediterranean area
title_full Spotted fever Rickettsia species in Hyalomma and Ixodes ticks infesting migratory birds in the European Mediterranean area
title_fullStr Spotted fever Rickettsia species in Hyalomma and Ixodes ticks infesting migratory birds in the European Mediterranean area
title_full_unstemmed Spotted fever Rickettsia species in Hyalomma and Ixodes ticks infesting migratory birds in the European Mediterranean area
title_short Spotted fever Rickettsia species in Hyalomma and Ixodes ticks infesting migratory birds in the European Mediterranean area
title_sort spotted fever rickettsia species in hyalomma and ixodes ticks infesting migratory birds in the european mediterranean area
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4230250/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25011617
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1756-3305-7-318
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