Detection of Rickettsia amblyommatis and Rickettsia bellii in ticks collected from pet dogs in peri-urban and rural areas in Yucatan, Mexico

Edwin Vázquez-Guerrero, Guadalupe C. Reyes-Solís*, Alan E. Cano-Ravell, Carlos Machain-Williams, Marcia Leyva-Gastélum, Paulina Estrada-de los Santos, Gerardo Álvarez-Hernández, J. Antonio Ibarra*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

Rickettsia species are bacteria that may cause multiple diseases in animals and humans, via transmission through multiple arthropod vectors. Routine surveillance of Rickettsia spp. within vectors is critical to determine their presence and risk to mammalian hosts within human populations. Therefore, to better characterize the circulating Rickettsia species in an understudied region we targeted pet dogs to survey. Ticks were collected from pet dogs in three populations of the Yucatan where we tested for the presence of Rickettsia spp. by PCR in metagenomic DNA. In these ticks removed from pet dogs we detected Rickettsia amblyommatis and Rickettsia bellii in Amblyomma auriculatum, Amblyomma ovale and Amblyomma mixtum ticks obtained in a rural community in the Mexican state of Yucatan. This is the first report detecting both species for this state in Mexico, underpinning the importance of more routine surveillance.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)441-453
Number of pages13
JournalExperimental and Applied Acarology
Volume90
Issue number3-4
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 2023

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Keywords

  • Amblyomma
  • Pet dogs
  • Rickettsia spp
  • Surveilling systems
  • Ticks

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