Immature ticks on wild birds and the molecular detection of a novel Rickettsia strain in the Ibitipoca State Park, southeastern Brazil

• Published in: Experimental & applied acarology Vol. 81; no. 3; pp. 457 - 467
• Main Authors: Ramirez, Diego G., Luz, Hermes R., Muñoz-Leal, Sebastián, Flausino, Walter, Acosta, Igor C. L., Martins, Thiago F., Peckle, Maristela, Santos, Helio F., Furusawa, Guilherme P., Labruna, Marcelo B., Faccini, João L. H.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cham Springer International Publishing 01-07-2020; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Amblyomma; Animal Ecology; Animal Genetics and Genomics; Animal Systematics/Taxonomy/Biogeography; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Birds; Ectoparasites; Entomology; Larvae; Life Sciences; New records; Parks & recreation areas; Phylogenetics; Phylogeny; Research projects; Rickettsia; Small mammals; Species; Ticks; Brazil; Atlantic rainforest; Birds; Immature ticks
• ISSN: 0168-8162; 1572-9702
• DOI: 10.1007/s10493-020-00521-2

Birds are recognized hosts of ticks, especially for the immature stages which may harbor various species and strains of
Rickettsia
. To explore landscapes inhabited by birds and their ticks would expand the knowledge on host-parasite relationships and the rickettsiae. The aim of this paper was to record the diversity of ticks collected on wild birds and assess the phylogenetic position of a novel
Rickettsia
strain detected in immature ticks. Birds were captured in the Ibitipoca State Park, located in the Minas Gerais state, southeastern Brazil, as part of a long-term research project on the ecology of ticks, birds and
Rickettsia
. We found three tick species parasitizing birds:
Amblyomma aureolatum
(63 larvae, 10 nymphs),
Haemaphysalis leporispalustris
(28 larvae, seven nymphs) and
Amblyomma romarioi
(27 larvae). Among these,
A. aureolatum
was the most abundant species including 54% (73/135) of the collected ticks. New tick-host records were:
A. romarioi
on
Turdus amaurochalinus
and
H. leporispalustris
on
Thamnophilus caerulescens
,
Saltator similis
and
Zonotrichia capensis
. Of the 82 ticks tested for
Rickettsia
spp. by PCR, two larvae (2.5%) of
A. romarioi
were infected with ‘
Candidatus
Rickettsia paranaensis’, a novel putative
Rickettsia
species closely related to
Rickettsia africae
,
Rickettsia sibirica
and
Rickettsia parkeri
, as corroborated by our phylogenetic analysis. Finally, we present a list of all records of immature stages of
H. leporispalustris
on passerine birds in Brazil.