Utilizing attached hard ticks as pointers to the risk of infection by Babesia and Theileria species in sika deer ( Cervu
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Utilizing attached hard ticks as pointers to the risk of infection by Babesia and Theileria species in sika deer (Cervus nippon yesoensis), in Japan Elzahara Elbaz1,2 · Mohamed Abdallah Mohamed Moustafa1,3 · Kyunglee Lee4 · Alice Lau Ching Ching1 · Michito Shimozuru1 · Mariko Sashika1 · Ryo Nakao5 · Sabry Ahmed El‑khodery2 · Toshio Tsubota1,6 Received: 3 June 2020 / Accepted: 18 September 2020 © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Abstract Ticks are hematophagous ectoparasites that have a significant impact on their animal hosts. Along with mosquitoes, they are the main arthropod vectors of disease agents in domestic animals, wildlife and humans. To investigate the occurrence and prevalence of piroplasmids in ticks, DNA was extracted from 519 hard ticks collected from 116 hunted Hokkaido sika deer (Cervus nippon yesoensis). The success of the DNA extraction was confirmed by touchdown PCR targeting the mitochondrial 16S rDNA gene of ticks. Touchdown PCR and reverse line blot (RLB) hybridization targeting the 18S rRNA gene were used to detect 14 piroplasm species. All hard ticks parasitizing Hokkaido sika deer were identified as belonging to the genera Ixodes and Haemaphysalis. In total 163 samples (31.4%) were positive for Babesia and Theileria spp. among tick species according to RLB hybridization. Tick DNA hybridized to the oligonucleotide probes of Theileria sp. Thrivae (27.0% of ticks; 140/519), Theileria capreoli (10.6%; 55/519), Babesia divergens-like (1.7%; 9/519), Babesia sp. (Bab-SD) (0.6%; 3/519), Babesia microti U.S. (0.4%; 2/519), and B. microti Hobetsu (0.4%; 2/519). The partial sequencing and phylogenetic analyses of the 18S rRNA gene confirmed the RLB hybridization results. Further investigations are needed to reveal the epidemiology and respective vectors of these pathogens. Keywords Babesia · Hard ticks · Reverse line blot · Sika deer · Theileria
Introduction Ticks are hematophagous ectoparasites that have significant impacts on their animal hosts, such as by causing anemia and direct skin tissue damage. Moreover, along with mosquitoes, they are the main arthropod vectors of disease agents in domestic animals and humans Elzahara Elbaz and Mohamed Abdallah Mohamed Moustafa contributed equally to this article. * Toshio Tsubota [email protected] Extended author information available on the last page of the article
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Experimental and Applied Acarology
(Azmi et al. 2016; Dantas-Torres et al. 2012; Ferrolho et al. 2016; Masatani et al. 2017). Two major families of ticks, Ixodidae (hard ticks) and Argasidae (soft ticks), which include more than 900 tick species, have been recorded globally (Chen et al. 2014). In Japan, 47 tick species have been reported, of which 21 parasitize humans (Takano et al. 2014). The incidence of tick-borne diseases (TBDs) and the emergence of novel TBD agents have been increasing worldwide during the past 2 decades (Kernif et al. 2016; Piesman and Eisen 2008). Hence, it is important to investigate the prevalence of tick-borne pathogens to
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