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Rickettsia lusitaniae in Ornithodoros Porcinus Ticks, Zambia
Rickettsial pathogens are amongst the emerging and re-emerging vector-borne zoonoses of public health importance. Though traditionally considered to be transmitted by ixodid ticks, the role of argasid ticks as vectors of these pathogens is increasingly being recognized. While bat-feeding (Ornithodor...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
MDPI
2021
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8540723/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34684256 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/pathogens10101306 |
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author | Chitanga, Simbarashe Chambaro, Herman M. Moonga, Lavel C. Hayashida, Kyoko Yamagishi, Junya Muleya, Walter Changula, Katendi Mubemba, Benjamin Simbotwe, Manyando Squarre, David Fandamu, Paul Nalubamba, King S. Qiu, Yongjin Hirofumi, Sawa Simulundu, Edgar |
author_facet | Chitanga, Simbarashe Chambaro, Herman M. Moonga, Lavel C. Hayashida, Kyoko Yamagishi, Junya Muleya, Walter Changula, Katendi Mubemba, Benjamin Simbotwe, Manyando Squarre, David Fandamu, Paul Nalubamba, King S. Qiu, Yongjin Hirofumi, Sawa Simulundu, Edgar |
author_sort | Chitanga, Simbarashe |
collection | PubMed |
description | Rickettsial pathogens are amongst the emerging and re-emerging vector-borne zoonoses of public health importance. Though traditionally considered to be transmitted by ixodid ticks, the role of argasid ticks as vectors of these pathogens is increasingly being recognized. While bat-feeding (Ornithodoros faini) and chicken-feeding (Argas walkerae) argasid ticks have been shown to harbor Rickettsia pathogens in Zambia, there are currently no reports of Rickettsia infection in southern Africa from warthog-feeding (Phacochoerus africanus) soft ticks, particularly Ornithodoros moubata and Ornithodoros porcinus. Our study sought to expand on the existing knowledge on the role of soft ticks in the epidemiology of Rickettsia species through screening for Rickettsia pathogens in warthog burrow-dwelling soft ticks from two national parks in Zambia. The tick species from which Rickettsia were detected in this study were identified as Ornithodoros porcinus, and an overall minimal Rickettsia infection rate of 19.8% (32/162) was observed. All of the sequenced Rickettsia were identified as Rickettsia lusitaniae based on nucleotide sequence similarity and phylogenetic analysis of the citrate synthase (gltA) and 17kDa common antigen (htrA) genes. Utilizing all of the gltA (n = 10) and htrA (n = 12) nucleotide sequences obtained in this study, BLAST analysis showed 100% nucleotide similarity to Rickettsia lusitaniae. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that all of the Zambian gltA and htrA gene sequences could be grouped with those of Rickettsia lusitaniae obtained in various parts of the world. Our data suggest that Rickettsia lusitaniae has a wider geographic and vector range, enhancing to our understanding of Rickettsia lusitaniae epidemiology in sub-Saharan Africa. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8540723 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | MDPI |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-85407232021-10-24 Rickettsia lusitaniae in Ornithodoros Porcinus Ticks, Zambia Chitanga, Simbarashe Chambaro, Herman M. Moonga, Lavel C. Hayashida, Kyoko Yamagishi, Junya Muleya, Walter Changula, Katendi Mubemba, Benjamin Simbotwe, Manyando Squarre, David Fandamu, Paul Nalubamba, King S. Qiu, Yongjin Hirofumi, Sawa Simulundu, Edgar Pathogens Article Rickettsial pathogens are amongst the emerging and re-emerging vector-borne zoonoses of public health importance. Though traditionally considered to be transmitted by ixodid ticks, the role of argasid ticks as vectors of these pathogens is increasingly being recognized. While bat-feeding (Ornithodoros faini) and chicken-feeding (Argas walkerae) argasid ticks have been shown to harbor Rickettsia pathogens in Zambia, there are currently no reports of Rickettsia infection in southern Africa from warthog-feeding (Phacochoerus africanus) soft ticks, particularly Ornithodoros moubata and Ornithodoros porcinus. Our study sought to expand on the existing knowledge on the role of soft ticks in the epidemiology of Rickettsia species through screening for Rickettsia pathogens in warthog burrow-dwelling soft ticks from two national parks in Zambia. The tick species from which Rickettsia were detected in this study were identified as Ornithodoros porcinus, and an overall minimal Rickettsia infection rate of 19.8% (32/162) was observed. All of the sequenced Rickettsia were identified as Rickettsia lusitaniae based on nucleotide sequence similarity and phylogenetic analysis of the citrate synthase (gltA) and 17kDa common antigen (htrA) genes. Utilizing all of the gltA (n = 10) and htrA (n = 12) nucleotide sequences obtained in this study, BLAST analysis showed 100% nucleotide similarity to Rickettsia lusitaniae. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that all of the Zambian gltA and htrA gene sequences could be grouped with those of Rickettsia lusitaniae obtained in various parts of the world. Our data suggest that Rickettsia lusitaniae has a wider geographic and vector range, enhancing to our understanding of Rickettsia lusitaniae epidemiology in sub-Saharan Africa. MDPI 2021-10-12 /pmc/articles/PMC8540723/ /pubmed/34684256 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/pathogens10101306 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
spellingShingle | Article Chitanga, Simbarashe Chambaro, Herman M. Moonga, Lavel C. Hayashida, Kyoko Yamagishi, Junya Muleya, Walter Changula, Katendi Mubemba, Benjamin Simbotwe, Manyando Squarre, David Fandamu, Paul Nalubamba, King S. Qiu, Yongjin Hirofumi, Sawa Simulundu, Edgar Rickettsia lusitaniae in Ornithodoros Porcinus Ticks, Zambia |
title | Rickettsia lusitaniae in Ornithodoros Porcinus Ticks, Zambia |
title_full | Rickettsia lusitaniae in Ornithodoros Porcinus Ticks, Zambia |
title_fullStr | Rickettsia lusitaniae in Ornithodoros Porcinus Ticks, Zambia |
title_full_unstemmed | Rickettsia lusitaniae in Ornithodoros Porcinus Ticks, Zambia |
title_short | Rickettsia lusitaniae in Ornithodoros Porcinus Ticks, Zambia |
title_sort | rickettsia lusitaniae in ornithodoros porcinus ticks, zambia |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8540723/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34684256 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/pathogens10101306 |
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