Rickettsia rickettsiiCo-feeding Transmission amongAmblyomma aureolatumTicks

Abstract

Amblyomma aureolatum ticks are vectors of Rickettsia rickettsii, the etiologic agent of Rocky Mountain spotted fever in Brazil. Maintenance of R. rickettsii in nature depends on horizontal transmission along tick generations. Although such transmission is known to occur when uninfected and infected ticks feed simultaneously on susceptible animals (co-feeding systemic transmission), we investigated co-feeding nonsystemic transmission, which was based on R. rickettsii–infected and –uninfected A. aureolatum ticks feeding simultaneously on guinea pigs immune to R. rickettsii. Our acquisition and transmission infestations demonstrated that horizontal transmission of R. rickettsii by co-feeding ticks on immune hosts with no systemic infection did not occur when uninfected larvae fed distantly from infected nymphs but did occur in a few cases when uninfected larvae fed side-by-side with infected nymphs, suggesting that they shared the same feeding site. The co-feeding nonsystemic transmission type might have no epidemiologic importance for Rocky Mountain spotted fever.

Ticks on wild boar in the metropolitan area of Barcelona (Spain) are infected with spotted fever group rickettsiae

“…but their carnivore hosts were not, suggesting that the infection occurred when feeding on other hosts as immature ticks (Millán et al, 2016). Also, some of the Rickettsia-positive ticks in our study could have been infected via co-feeding, as this way of transmission has already been proven for some Rickettsia species (Moraes-Filho et al, 2018;Zemtsova et al, 2010).…”

“…Moreover, wild boars could be favouring the Rickettsia spp. transmission among ticks via co‐feeding, even if wild boars are not infected (Moraes‐Filho et al., 2018; Zemtsova et al., 2010). On the other hand, human‐wildlife coexistence is generating new paradigms of interactions (Conejero et al., 2019; Martínez‐Abraín et al., 2019; Soulsbury & White, 2015).…”

Extensive diversity of RNA viruses in ticks revealed by metagenomics in northeastern China

“…However, the two viruses were not detected in the questing D. silvarum ticks in Dunhua adjacent to Shulan. As cattle can act as hosts of more than two tick species, such as D. silvarum, H. japonica, H. concinna , and I. persulcatus ticks, and co-feeding transmission may be an efficiency way of viral transmission in ticks (51-53), we concluded that D. silvarum collected from cattle here may contract the viruses from Haemaphysalis sp . or I. persulcatus ticks by co-feeding transmission, but not the actual vector of these viruses.…”

Novel Protozoans in Austria Revealed through the Use of Dogs as Sentinels for Ticks and Tick-Borne Pathogens

“…In general, it is impossible to determine whether the screened tick was positive for a specific pathogen prior to or following the blood meal during which the tick was collected. Additionally, infection of naïve ticks through cofeeding with positive ticks on the same host plays a significant role [ 26 ]. During cofeeding, microbes transmitted by positive ticks are able to infect naïve ticks without requiring the host animal to be (systemically) infected [ 26 ].…”

“…Additionally, infection of naïve ticks through cofeeding with positive ticks on the same host plays a significant role [ 26 ]. During cofeeding, microbes transmitted by positive ticks are able to infect naïve ticks without requiring the host animal to be (systemically) infected [ 26 ]. Therefore, overall tick-borne pathogen prevalence cannot be used for meaningful analysis.…”