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6 February 2017 The Detection of Spotted Fever Group Rickettsia DNA in Tick Samples From Pastoral Communities in Kenya
Hellen Koka, Rosemary Sang, Helen Lydia Kutima, Lillian Musila
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Abstract

In this study, ticks from pastoral communities in Kenya were tested for Rickettsia spp. infections in geographical regions where the presence of tick-borne arboviruses had previously been reported. Rickettsial and arbovirus infections have similar clinical features which makes differential diagnosis challenging when both diseases occur. The tick samples were tested for Rickettsia spp. by conventional PCR using three primer sets targeting the gltA, ompA, and ompB genes followed by amplicon sequencing. Of the tick pools screened, 25% (95/380) were positive for Rickettsia spp. DNA using the gltA primer set. Of the tick-positive pools, 60% were ticks collected from camels. Rickettsia aeschlimannii and R. africae were the main Rickettsia spp. detected in the tick pools sequenced. The findings of this study indicate that multiple Rickettsia species are circulating in ticks from pastoral communities in Kenya and could contribute to the etiology of febrile illness in these areas. Diagnosis and treatment of rickettsial infections should be a public health priority in these regions.

©The Author(s) 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Entomological Society of America. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact journals.permissions@oup.com.
Hellen Koka, Rosemary Sang, Helen Lydia Kutima, and Lillian Musila "The Detection of Spotted Fever Group Rickettsia DNA in Tick Samples From Pastoral Communities in Kenya," Journal of Medical Entomology 54(3), 774-780, (6 February 2017). https://doi.org/10.1093/jme/tjw238
Received: 26 September 2016; Accepted: 8 December 2016; Published: 6 February 2017
KEYWORDS
diagnosis
gltA
pastoral
Rickettsia
tick
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