Ticks and accompanying pathogens of domestic and wild animals of Kerala, South India

• Published in: Experimental & applied acarology Vol. 79; no. 1; pp. 137 - 155
• Main Authors: Nimisha, Murikoli, Devassy, Jeena Kaitharath, Pradeep, Rangapura Kariyappa, Pakideery, Vidya, Sruthi, Meethalae Koombayil, Pious, Anu, Kurbet, Prashant Somalingappa, Amrutha, Birur Mallappa, Chandrasekhar, Leena, Deepa, Chundayil Kalarikkal, Ajithkumar, Karapparambu Gopalan, Varghese, Anju, Juliet, Sanis, Dinesh, Chemmangattuvalappil Narendranath, Nair, Suresh Narayanan, Chandy, George, Ghosh, Srikant, Ravindran, Reghu
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cham Springer International Publishing 01-09-2019; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Animal Ecology; Animal Genetics and Genomics; Animal Systematics/Taxonomy/Biogeography; Animals; Animals, Wild; Arachnids; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Deoxyribonucleic acid; DNA; Domestic animals; Entomology; Eucoccidiida - isolation & purification; Gene sequencing; Goats; Host-Parasite Interactions; India; Ixodidae - microbiology; Ixodidae - parasitology; Ixodidae - physiology; Life Sciences; Nucleotide sequence; Nucleotides; Pathogens; Phylogeny; Piroplasmida - isolation & purification; Polymerase chain reaction; Ribonucleic acid; Rickettsiales - isolation & purification; RNA; Tick Infestations - parasitology; Tick Infestations - veterinary; Ticks; Wild animals; India; Kerala India; Nucleotide sequences; Animals; South India; Tick-borne pathogens; Ticks; PCR
• ISSN: 0168-8162; 1572-9702
• DOI: 10.1007/s10493-019-00414-z

The objective of the present study was to detect the chosen nucleotide DNA or RNA sequences of the pathogens in ticks of domestic and wild animals of Kerala, South India based on molecular techniques. Among 602 ticks collected, 413 were from bovines (cattle and buffalo), 26 from goats, 101 from dogs and 62 from wild animals.
Amblyomma integrum, Am. gervaisi, Dermacentor auratus, Haemaphysalis bispinosa, Ha. intermedia
,
Ha. shimoga
,
Ha. spinigera
,
Rhipicephalus annulatus, Rh. microplus, Rh. haemaphysaloides
and
Rh. sanguineus
s.l. were identified from various domestic and wild animals of Kerala. The cDNA synthesized from the RNA isolated from fully or partially engorged adult female/nymphal ticks was used as template for the specific polymerase chain reactions (PCR). Out of 602 ticks examined, nucleotide sequences of pathogens were detected in 28 ticks (4.65%). The nucleotide sequences of tick-borne pathogens like
Theileria orientalis, Babesia vogeli, Hepatozoon canis, Anaplasma marginale, An. bovis, Rickettsia
sp. closely related to
Ri. raoultii, Ri. massiliae, Ri. africae
and
Ri. slovaca
were detected. The identification of the previously unreported nucleotide sequences of rickettsial pathogens from India is of particular interest due to their zoonotic significance. The phylogenetic analysis of the major piroplasm surface protein (
MPSP
) gene of
T. orientalis
amplified from
Rh. annulatus
ticks revealed that they were genetically close to type 7, which belong to the highly pathogenic Ikeda group.