Rickettsiasp. Strain NOD Infecting Ticks (Amblyomma nodosum) in an Endemic Area of Spotted Fever in Brazil

Abstract

Amblyomma nodosum ticks were collected from one collared anteater ( Tamandua tetradactyla) in the Caatinga biome, Brazil. From one sample, we isolated a Rickettsia sp. that was phylogenetically close to Rickettsia sp. strain NOD, with 99.9, 100.0, and 99.8% identity for gltA, htrA, and ompA genes, respectively.

Rickettsia parkeri strain Atlantic rainforest in ticks (Acari: Ixodidae) of wild birds in Arauca, Orinoquia region of Colombia

“…Conversely, adult ticks have been observed on mammals; for instance, in the Orinoquia, adult ticks are associated with mammal species of the order Pilosa, which are commonly found in the region ( Aya-Cuero et al, 2019 ). These mammals are known hosts for A. nodosum ( Luque, 1948 ; Witter et al, 2016 ; Moerbeck et al, 2018 ).…”

“…Despite the distribution of A. nodosum includes the Neotropical region ( Nava et al, 2014 , 2017 ), there are no human reports of infestation by this ticks ( Guglielmone et al, 2014 ; Nava et al, 2017 ; Moerbeck et al, 2018 ). In Colombia, A. nodosum has only been reported in the central and western areas of the country in the departments of Antioquia, Meta, Tolima, and Valle del Cauca ( Osorno-Mesa, 1940 ; Luque, 1948 ; López and Parra, 1985 ; Benavides-Montaño et al, 2018 ) infesting anteaters ( Tamandua tetradactyla ).…”

Parasitism of a capybara (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris) by Amblyomma nodosum Neumann, 1899 and Amblyomma humerale Koch, 1844 in an Amazon forest area, Rondônia, Brazil

“…Its parasitism on a lizard has also been described by Zimmermann et al (2018) in the same state. In addition to the veterinary importance of ticks as animal parasites, several reports have shown the detection of microorganisms in A. nodosum and A. humerale such as Rickettsiae, what could eventually be related to human health risks (Labruna et al, 2004;Ogrzewalska et al, 2009;Almeida et al, 2013;Soares et al, 2015;Witter et al, 2016;Machado et al, 2018;Moerbeck et al, 2018). This justifies the interest in conducting research on these ectoparasites in areas rich in biodiversity, especially the Amazon region.…”

“…There are several reports of the tick A. nodosum in Brazil, parasitizing mainly anteaters in various regions of the country, including the states of Mato Grosso, Goiás, Ceará (Witter et al, 2016;Machado et al, 2018;Moerbeck et al, 2018), Mato Grosso do Sul (Garcia et al, 2013) and Rondônia (Zimmermann et al, 2018). The occurrence of A. nodosum in Rondônia has been reported since 2005, where these ticks were found by Labruna et al (2005) and Martins et al (2014) on anteaters in different municipalities.…”

Amblyomma nodosum Neumann, 1889 on collared anteaters (Tamandua tetradactyla) from the Andean region of Colombia

“…Amblyomma nodosum on anteaters from Colombia Ogrzewalska et al, 2009) and from T. tetradactyla (Almeida et al, 2013;Moerbeck et al, 2018;Szabó et al, 2019;Witter et al, 2016) in Brazil. Although R. bellii is considered nonpathogenic and the pathogenic role of R. parkeri strain NOD is unknown, one cannot ignore the relevance of the former in the interaction with other Rickettsia species (Krawczak et al, 2018), and the pathogenic potential of the latter due to its phylogenetic relationship with other R. parkeri pathogenic strains (Nieri-Bastos et al, 2018).…”