Japanese spotted fever, a tick-borne disease caused by Rickettsia japonica, was firstly described in southwestern Japan. There was a suspicion of Rickettsia japonica infected ticks reaching the non-endemic Niigata Prefecture after a confirmed case of Japanese spotted fever in July 2014. Therefore, from 2015 to 2017, 38 sites were surveyed and rickettsial pathogens were investigated in ticks from north to south of Niigata Prefecture including Sado island. A total of 3336 ticks were collected and identified revealing ticks of three genera and ten species: Dermacentor taiwanensis, Haemaphysalis flava, Haemaphysalis hystricis, Haemaphysalis longicornis, Haemaphysalis megaspinosa, Ixodes columnae, Ixodes monospinosus, Ixodes nipponensis, Ixodes ovatus, and Ixodes persulcatus. Investigation of rickettsial DNA showed no ticks infected by R. japonica. However, three species of spotted fever group rickettsiae (SFGR) were found in ticks, R. asiatica, R. helvetica, and R. monacensis, confirming Niigata Prefecture as a new endemic area to SFGR. These results highlight the need for public awareness of the occurrence of this tick-borne disease, which necessitates the establishment of public health initiatives to mitigate its spread.
Ixodid tick species such as Ixodes ovatus and Haemaphysalis flava are important vector of tick-borne diseases in Japan. In this study, we used genetic structure at two mitochondrial loci (cox1, 16S rRNA gene) to infer gene flow patterns of I. ovatus and H. flava from Niigata Prefecture, Japan. Samples were collected in 29 (I. ovatus) and 17 (H. flava) sampling locations across Niigata Prefecture (12,584.18 km2). For I. ovatus, pairwise FST and analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) analyses of cox1 sequences indicated significant among-population differentiation. This was in contrast to H. flava, for which there were few cases of low significant pairwise differentiation. A Mantel test revealed isolation by distance and there was positive spatial autocorrelation of haplotypes in I. ovatus cox1 and 16S sequences, but non-significant results were observed in H. flava in both markers. We found three genetic groups (China 1, China 2 and Japan) in the cox1 I. ovatus tree. Newly sampled I. ovatus grouped together with a published I. ovatus sequence from northern Japan and were distinct from two other I. ovatus groups that were reported from southern China. The three genetic groups in our data set suggest the potential for cryptic species among the groups. While many factors can potentially account for the observed differences in genetic structure between the two species, including population persistence and large-scale patterns of range expansion, the differences in the mobility of hosts of tick immature stages (small mammals in I. ovatus; birds in H. flava) is possibly driving the observed patterns.
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