Genomic Profiling for Piroplasms in Feeding Ixodid Ticks in the Eastern Cape, South Africa

Abstract

Importation of tick-infected animals and the uncontrollable migration of birds and wild animals across borders can lead to geographical expansion and redistribution of ticks and pathogen vectors, thus leading to the emergence and re-emergence of tick-borne diseases in humans and animals. Comparatively, little is known about the occurrence of piroplasms in ixodid ticks in the Eastern Cape, South Africa, thus necessitating this study, which is aimed at detecting piroplasms (Theileria and Babesia) from feeding tick samples collected from cattle, sheep, and goats in selected sites in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. A total of 1200 feeding ixodid ticks collected from farm animals at selected homesteads were first subjected to molecular identification using mitochondrial 12S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene by PCR and were further tested for the presence of piroplasms through amplification of the 18S rRNA gene via nested-PCR followed by sequencing of the PCR products. The results indicated that 853 (71.1%) corresponded to the genus Rhipicephalus, 335 (27.9%) corresponded to genus Amblyomma, and 12 (1%) corresponded to genus Haemaphysalis. Amblyomma hebraeum and Rhipicephalus appendiculatus were the most common identified ticks from this study. The 18S rRNA nested-PCR revealed that 44 (3.7%) samples were confirmed positive for Theileria. A homology search for the generated sequences revealed a high percentage identity of 98–98.9% similarity to T. buffeli, T. orientalis, and T. sergenti in the GenBank. Based on the results obtained herein, we conclude that there is a big diversity of Theileria species; therefore, we suggest that this research should cover more geographical areas in order to reveal the true prevalence of this pathogen in the studied area because this will be a great step in the possible prevention of an outbreak that could have devastating effects on livestock production and human health in both the studied areas and South Africa at large.

Evidence of zoonotic rickettsiae in ixodid ticks of domestic animals in some communal farms in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa

“…ATBF has also been detected from American travelers’ returning from Southern Africa with a history of tick bite during their visit, as well as from positive human serum samples in western Africa [ 24 ]. The detection of R. africae in the present study is supported by the findings of Iweriebor et al [ 20 ], who reported a high detection rate of R. africae from species of Amblyomma ticks collected from domesticated animals.…”

“…Similarly, the detection of R. africae by PCR on a skin biopsy of a returning 40-year-old Italian physician from Zimbabwe, who presented with fever and a neurological syndrome characterized by severe pain of the left leg was reported by Zammarchi et al [ 27 ]. The global incidence rate of human rickettsiosis caused by R. africae has been reported to be above 5% among travelers who developed an acute febrile infection after their return from sub-Saharan Africa [ 24 ]. The presence of R. africae from A. hebraeum and species of Haemaphysalis and Rhipicephalus has long been established in South Africa [ 20 , 23 , 28 ]; hence South Africa has been described as an endemic region for ATBF.…”

Pathobiology of the Tick-Borne Piroplasmosis

“…In case of B. divergens infection, anal sphincter spasm also occurs, causing the passage of faeces with great force, the situation is referred as pipe-Fig. 1: Physical map of the world, showing the prevalence of Babesia species in various regions (Source: Altay et al 2008;Adjou et al 2015;Farooqi et al 2017;Abdela et al 2018;Adelabu et al 2020;Zimmermann et al 2021). stem faeces.…”