Abstract
The aim of this study was to determine the infection with Rickettsiales in ticks and birds from the main protected urban area of Buenos Aires City (Argentina). One Amblyomma aureolatum (0.2%) and one Ixodes auritulus (0.1%) were positive by PCR targeting Rickettsia 23S-5S rRNA intergenic spacer. Phylogenetic analysis shows to findings in A. aureolatum are closely to Rickettsia bellii and for I. auritulus are related to ‘Candidatus Rickettsia mendelii’. One I. auritulus (0.1%) and three A. aureolatum (0.6%) were positive by PCR for a fragment of the 16S rRNA gene of the Anaplasmataceae family. The sequences obtained from A. aureolatum were phylogenetically related to Midichloriaceae endosymbionts. The sequence from I. auritulus s.l. had 100% identity with Ehrlichia sp. Magellanica from Chile and two genotypes of Ehrlichia sp. from Uruguay. The results of our study show that Rickettsia and Ehrlichia are present in ticks in the main protected urban area of Buenos Aires City.
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Acknowledgements
We gratefully acknowledge to Juan Carlos Sassarolli (Instituto de Zoonosis Luis Pasteur), Lorena Zapata (Reserva Ecológica Costanera Sur) and residents of Veterinary Public Health Residency (Instituto de Zoonosis Luis Pasteur). This work was partially supported by research fellowship ‘Ramón Carrillo-Arturo Oñativia’ 2015 (Ministry of Public Health, Argentina) and by grant for Clinical and Epidemiological Research 2016-2018 (Roemmers Fundation, Argentina). SN acknowledges the financial support of INTA, Asociación Cooperadora Inta Rafaela and CONICET.
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Blood samples obtained by order, family, species and numbers of birds. Electronic supplementary file1 (PDF 185 kb)
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Order, family, species and numbers of dead birds analyzed in this study. Electronic supplementary file2 (PDF 195 kb)
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Cicuttin, G.L., De Salvo, M.N., Venzal, J.M. et al. Rickettsia spp., Ehrlichia sp. and Candidatus Midichloria sp. associated to ticks from a protected urban area in Buenos Aires City (Argentina). Exp Appl Acarol 86, 271–282 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10493-022-00684-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10493-022-00684-0