Molecular Detection of Rickettsia Genus in Hard Ticks Isolated from Goat Samples in Lorestan Province

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Department of Microbiology and Food Hygiene, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Lorestan University, Khorramabad, Iran.

2 Department of Microbiology and Food Hygiene, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Lorestan University, Khorramabad, Iran

3 Department of Pathobiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Lorestan University, Khorramabad, Iran

10.22075/jvlr.2026.40119.1199

Abstract

Hard ticks are obligate and blood-sucking ectoparasites of terrestrial vertebrates that transmit some bacteria (such as Rickettsia, Borrelia, Ehrlichia, Bartonella, Francisella, and Coxiella). The present study was conducted to identify and molecularly distinguish the genus Rickettsia from hard ticks isolated from samples of goat in Lorestan province. In this study, a total of 262 hard ticks were classified and identified based on diagnostic keys. Then, primers for the (gltA) genes were used to detect Rickettsia by Nested-PCR method. Mega 11 software with 1000 iterations was used for phylogenetic analysis. The results showed that 2 pool samples (9.18%) (CI: 4.9%-16.54%) of the tick samples from Lorestan province were infected with Rickettsia. The 2 positive pool samples were related to Haemaphysalis sulcata ticks from Aligudarz and Selseleh (20%) (CI: -5.67%-50.98%). Blast sequencing of the positive samples in NCBI showed that the strains isolated in Lorestan province belong to the Rickettsia hoogstraalii species and are 99-100% similar to other strains registered in NCBI. The findings indicate that Haemaphysalis sulcata ticks may play an important role in the transmission of Rickettsia in the mentioned areas, so this issue could be a major public health concern worldwide.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

Abdoli, F., Mostafavi, E., Esmaeili, S., & Rohani, M. (2022). Molecular detection and identification of Rickettsia spp. in collected ticks from domestic animals in Southeastern of Iran. Comp Immunol Microbiol Infect Dis, 85, 101798. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cimid.2022.101798
Aneela, A., Almutairi, M. M., Alouffi, A., Ahmed, H., Tanaka, T., da Silva Vaz, I., Chang, S.-C., Chen, C.-C., & Ali, A. (2023). Molecular Detection of Rickettsia hoogstraalii in Hyalomma anatolicum and Haemaphysalis sulcata: Updated Knowledge on the Epidemiology of Tick-Borne Rickettsia hoogstraalii. Veterinary Sciences, 10(10), 605. https://www.mdpi.com/2306-7381/10/10/605
Baldridge, G. D., Burkhardt, N. Y., Simser, J. A., Kurtti, T. J., & Munderloh, U. G. (2004). Sequence and expression analysis of the ompA gene of Rickettsia peacockii, an endosymbiont of the Rocky Mountain wood tick, Dermacentor andersoni. Applied and environmental microbiology, 70(11), 6628-6636.
Blanda, V., D'Agostino, R., Giudice, E., Randazzo, K., La Russa, F., Villari, S., Vullo, S., & Torina, A. (2020). New Real-Time PCRs to Differentiate Rickettsia spp. and Rickettsia conorii. Molecules, 25(19). https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules25194431
Blanton, L. S., & Walker, D. H. (2017). Flea-Borne Rickettsioses and Rickettsiae. Am J Trop Med Hyg, 96(1), 53-56. https://doi.org/10.4269/ajtmh.16-0537
Ceylan, O., Xuan, X., & Sevinc, F. (2021). Primary tick-borne protozoan and rickettsial infections of animals in Turkey. Pathogens, 10(2), 231.
Hosseini chegeni, A., Alizadehsarabi, z., & Nayebzadeh, H. (2021). An Illustrated Guide to Identification of Ticks, (Acari: Ixodidae & Argasidae). Species of external parasites of domestic animals in Iran In Persian. .
Hosseini Chegeni, A., Hosseini, R., Telmadarraiy, Z., & Abdigoudarzi, M. (2019). The Iranian Hyalomma (Acari: Ixodidae) with molecular evidences to understand taxonomic status of species complexes. Persian Journal of Acarology, 8(4). https://doi.org/10.22073/pja.v8i4.49892
Khalili, M., Rezaei, M., Akhtardanesh, B., & Abiri, Z. (2018). Article Detection of Coxiella burnetii (Gammaproteobacteria: Coxiellaceae) in ticks collected from infested dogs in Kerman, Southeast of Iran. https://doi.org/10.22073/pja.v7i1.30699
Kooshki, H., Goudarzi, G., Faghihi, F., Telmadarraiy, Z., Edalat, H., & Hosseini Chegeni, A. (2020). The first record of Rickettsia hoogstraalii (Rickettsiales: Rickettsiaceae) from Argas persicus (Acari: Argasidae) in Iran. Systematic and Applied Acarology, 25, 1611-1617. https://doi.org/10.11158/saa.25.9.7
La Scola, B., & Raoult, D. (1997). Laboratory diagnosis of rickettsioses: current approaches to diagnosis of old and new rickettsial diseases. J Clin Microbiol, 35(11), 2715-2727. https://doi.org/10.1128/jcm.35.11.2715-2727.1997
Matei, I. A., Corduneanu, A., Sándor, A. D., Ionică, A. M., Panait, L., Kalmár, Z., & Mihalca, A. D. (2021). Rickettsia spp. in bats of Romania: high prevalence of Rickettsia monacensis in two insectivorous bat species. Parasites & vectors, 14(1), 107.
Mazlum, Z. (1971). Differents Ticks occurring in Iran (geographical distribution, seasonal activities, hosts), Bull. . Faculty of Veterinary, 27(1), 1-23.
Moreira-Soto, R. D., Moreira-Soto, A., Calderón-Arguedas, Ó., Jiménez, M., Corrales-Aguilar, E., & Troyo, A. (2023). Detection of Rickettsia spp. in ticks of wildlife fauna from Costa Rica: First report of Rickettsia rhipicephali in Central America. Ticks and Tick-borne Diseases, 14(1), 102071. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ttbdis.2022.102071
Moutailler, S., Valiente Moro, C., Vaumourin, E., Michelet, L., Tran, F. H., Devillers, E., Cosson, J. F., Gasqui, P., Van, V. T., Mavingui, P., Vourc'h, G., & Vayssier-Taussat, M. (2016). Co-infection of Ticks: The Rule Rather Than the Exception. PLoS Negl Trop Dis, 10(3), e0004539. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0004539
Najafi, M., & Alizadeh, O. (2023). Climate zones in Iran. Meteorological Applications, 30, e2147. https://doi.org/10.1002/met.2147
Ng-Nguyen, D., Hii, S.-F., Hoang, M.-T. T., Nguyen, V.-A. T., Rees, R., Stenos, J., & Traub, R. J. (2020). Domestic dogs are mammalian reservoirs for the emerging zoonosis flea-borne spotted fever, caused by Rickettsia felis. Scientific Reports, 10(1), 4151. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-61122-y
Parola, P., & Raoult, D. (2001). Ticks and tickborne bacterial diseases in humans: an emerging infectious threat. Clin Infect Dis, 32(6), 897-928. https://doi.org/10.1086/319347
Portillo, A., de Sousa, R., Santibáñez, S., Duarte, A., Edouard, S., Fonseca, I. P., Marques, C., Novakova, M., Palomar, A. M., Santos, M., Silaghi, C., Tomassone, L., Zúquete, S., & Oteo, J. A. (2017). Guidelines for the Detection of Rickettsia spp. Vector Borne Zoonotic Dis, 17(1), 23-32. https://doi.org/10.1089/vbz.2016.1966
Prado, R., Araújo, I., Ferreira, G., Baeta, B., Freitas, A., Guterres, A., Fonseca, A., & Cordeiro, M. (2023). Molecular Detection of Rickettsia spp. in Free Living Ticks in Military Instruction Areas in Southeast Brazil. Brazilian Archives of Biology and Technology, 66, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1590/1678-4324-2023230052
Service, M. (2008). Medical Entomology for Students (4 ed.). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511811012
Wall, R. L., & Shearer, D. (2001). Veterinary Ectoparasites: Biology, Pathology and Control.
Journal of Veterinary Laboratory Research
Volume 18, Issue 1 - Serial Number 29
In Progress
May 2026
Pages 55-65

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics