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1 September 2015 Widespread Rickettsia spp. Infections in Ticks (Acari: Ixodoidea) in Taiwan
Chi-Chien Kuo, Pei-Yun Shu, Jung-Jung Mu, Pei-Lung Lee, Yin-Wen Wu, Chien-Kung Chung, Hsi-Chieh Wang
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Abstract

Ticks are second to mosquitoes as the most important disease vectors, and recent decades have witnessed the emergence of many novel tick-borne rickettsial diseases, but systematic surveys of ticks and tick-borne rickettsioses are generally lacking in Asia.We collected and identified ticks from small mammal hosts between 2006 and 2010 in different parts of Taiwan. Rickettsia spp. infections in ticks were identified by targeting ompB and gltA genes with nested polymerase chain reaction. In total, 2,732 ticks were collected from 1,356 small mammals. Rhipicephalus haemaphysaloides Supino (51.8% of total ticks), Haemaphysalis bandicota Hoogstraal & Kohls (28.0%), and Ixodes granulatus Supino (20.0%) were the most common tick species, and Rattus losea Swinhoe (44.7% of total ticks) and Bandicota indica Bechstein (39.9%) were the primary hosts. The average Rickettsia infective rate in 329 assayed ticks was 31.9% and eight Rickettsia spp. or closely related species were identified. This study shows that rickettsiae-infected ticks are widespread in Taiwan, with a high diversity of Rickettsia spp. circulating in the ticks. Because notifiable rickettsial diseases in Taiwan only include mite-borne scrub typhus and flea-borne murine typhus, more studies are warranted for a better understanding of the real extent of human risks to rickettsioses in Taiwan.

© The Authors 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Entomological Society of America. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com
Chi-Chien Kuo, Pei-Yun Shu, Jung-Jung Mu, Pei-Lung Lee, Yin-Wen Wu, Chien-Kung Chung, and Hsi-Chieh Wang "Widespread Rickettsia spp. Infections in Ticks (Acari: Ixodoidea) in Taiwan," Journal of Medical Entomology 52(5), 1096-1102, (1 September 2015). https://doi.org/10.1093/jme/tjv083
Received: 13 March 2015; Accepted: 9 June 2015; Published: 1 September 2015
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KEYWORDS
mammal host
Rickettsia
rickettsiosis
Taiwan
tick
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