Assessing Temporal Changes in Microbial Communities in Hyalomma dromedarii Collected From Camels in the UAE Using High-Throughput Sequencing

Abstract

Ticks (Acari) are ectoparasites of animals that harbor communities of microbes of importance to animal and human health. Microbial communities associated with ticks exhibit temporal patterns of variation in their composition, with different genera dominating at different times of the year. In this study, molecular tools were used to assess the composition of the microbial communities associated with Hyalomma dromdarii. Adult ticks were collected every month for 1 year from 25 camels in the UAE. A total of 12 DNA pools were prepared (one pool for each month). We monitored the microbiota of ticks using high-throughput sequencing of the V3–V4 region of the bacterial 16S rRNA gene. A total of 614 operational taxonomic units were produced through de novo clustering and belonged to 17 phyla, 30 classes, 46 orders, 118 families, and 222 genera. Fifteen bacterial families were found to be the most abundant. The dominant bacterial communities associated with H. dromedarii belonged to the genera Staphylococcus, Bacillus, Francisella, and Corynebacterium, which were reported with high relative abundance from all months. No significant correlation occurred between the abundance of microbial families or genera in H. dromedarii ticks and the ambient temperature. Our findings revealed, for the first time in the UAE, temporal fluctuations of microbial communities in H. dromedarii ticks and provided key insights on the interaction between different microbial groups. Moreover, our results contribute to the current understanding of disease development and allow more investigations for potentially pathogenic microbiota.

Exploring the dynamic ticks-camel-pathogens interaction

“…In previous studies Hyalomma dromedarii was the most common tick species found on camels, accounting for 90% of infestations 17,[22][23][24][25][26][27] . However, we observed a considerable abundance of H. rufipes on camels.…”

Virome diversity of Hyalomma dromedarii ticks collected from camels in the United Arab Emirates

“…Hyalomma dromedarii has been found with a high prevalence in camels in various studies [25,36]; therefore, the knowledge about the diversity of viruses in these ticks is crucial for surveillance strategies and for the management of any future tick-borne viral disease outbreak in the country. It should be mentioned that despite the fact that H. dromedarii is the most prevalent tick species on camels in the UAE, its microbiome is still poorly explored, despite the publication of few studies [37,38] that characterized the bacterial communities associated with it. Therefore, the current work sheds light on unexplored viral communities, In this study, for molecular identification of tick species, we used the 16S rRNA sequences of H. dromedarii from UAE that showed 99.75% similarity with H. dromedarii identified from Pakistan (OL307008), 99.50% similarity with sequences of H. dromedarii from India (LC661680), UAE (MZ976772) [25].…”

“…The differences in tick viromes between our study and Zakham et al [40] could simply be due to a temporal mismatch since their samples were collected later in the year (between July and October) while ours was collected during June. Evidence from camel tick microbiomes indicates that microbial communities in ticks differ substantially during the course of a year, with notable increases in certain microbes at specific times in the year [38]. Since ecological conditions influence viruses as well, it is expected that certain groups or genera of viruses will dominate at certain times of the year.…”

“…Available at www.veterinaryworld.org/Vol.16/March-2023/3.pdf ecology of tick-borne viruses are likely to be linked with the abundance of different microbial groups, as viruses are often associated with specific bacterial communities [41]. Since temporal and spatial aspects of H. dromedarii have not been studied, there is an urgent need to quantify patterns of high or low abundance of viruses and their diversity during the course of a year and across different sites [38]. The Poxviridae family was detected in our study with high relative abundance, whereas, the Orthopoxvirus genus was identified with some reads in both male and female ticks.…”

First Report of Caseous Lymphadenitis by Corynebacterium pseudotubercolosis and Pulmonary Verminosis in a Roe Deer (Capreolus capreolus Linnaeus, 1758) in Italy

“…C. pseudotuberculosis infections have been reported in several other species, both domestic and wildlife [14][15][16][17][18]. Nevertheless, C. pseudotuberculosis in suids has rarely been described, (e.g., an infection of pigs from two different farms in Spain) [19], as most infections in wild boars and pigs are caused by C. ulcerans [4,20,21], sometimes recently classified as novel C. sylvaticum [22][23][24].…”