Viral RNA Metagenomics of Hyalomma Ticks Collected from Dromedary Camels in Makkah Province, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Arthropod-borne infections are a medical and economic threat to humans and livestock. Over the last three decades, several unprecedented viral outbreaks have been recorded in the Western part of the Arabian Peninsula. However, little is known about the circulation and diversity of arthropod-borne viruses in this region. To prepare for new outbreaks of vector-borne diseases, it is important to detect which viruses circulate in each vector population. In this study, we used a metagenomics approach to characterize the RNA virome of ticks infesting dromedary camels (Camelus dromedaries) in Makkah province, Saudi Arabia. Two hundred ticks of species Hyalomma dromedarii (n = 196) and Hyalomma impeltatum (n = 4) were collected from the Alkhurma district in Jeddah and Al-Taif city. Virome analysis showed the presence of several tick-specific viruses and tick-borne viruses associated with severe illness in humans. Some were identified for the first time in the Arabian Peninsula. The human disease-associated viruses detected included Crimean Congo Hemorrhagic fever virus and Tamdy virus (family Nairoviridae), Guertu virus (family Phenuiviridae), and a novel coltivirus that shares similarities with Tarumizu virus, Tai forest reovirus and Kundal virus (family Reoviridae). Furthermore, Alkhurma hemorrhagic virus (Flaviviridae) was detected in two tick pools by specific qPCR. In addition, tick-specific viruses in families Phenuiviridae (phleboviruses), Iflaviridae, Chuviridae, Totiviridae and Flaviviridae (Pestivirus) were detected. The presence of human pathogenetic viruses warrants further efforts in tick surveillance, xenosurveillence, vector control, and sero-epidemiological investigations in human and animal populations to predict, contain and mitigate future outbreaks in the region.

Prevalence of Tick-Borne Viruses from Ticks Breeding on Camels Imported to Egypt During the Period from January 2019 to April 2021

“…Our finding is agreeing with Hoffman et al, 2018 66 and Horton et al, 2016 67 who reported that 0.66% and 0.36% were detected as AHFV, respectively. However, Zakham et al, 2021 68 found that AHFV represent 10% of all collected samples in Saudi Arabia and these results may be attributed to the transportation of thousands of animals yearly out of Africa and other countries to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, in order to fulfill the individual need for diet and transportation during the Hajj 69 . Carletti et al 2010 confirm the existence of AHFV in Egypt as it was detected in two tourists returning back to Italy from southern Egypt 40.…”

Enhanced Viral Metagenomics with Lazypipe 2

“…Our research group has contributed to this development with the Lazypipe mNGS pipeline designed primarily for virus discovery from clinical, animal and environmental samples with minimal requirements in terms of bioinformatic expertise and/or resources [ 22 ]. Lazypipe has been adopted as a standard module for mNGS analysis at the Finnish IT Center for Science ( , accessed on 21 December 2022) and has been successfully applied to detect and characterize a multitude of novel viral pathogens from a variety of different sample types, including arthropod vectors [ 23 , 24 ], mosquitos [ 25 ], farm animals [ 26 ] and wildlife [ 27 ]. Here, we present an enhanced version of our mNGS pipeline, Lazypipe 2.…”

mNGS Investigation of Single Ixodes pacificus Ticks Reveals Diverse Microbes, Viruses, and a Novel mRNA-like Endogenous Viral Elements

“…Currently, the majority of field surveillance studies of tick-associated microbes focus on the causative agent of Lyme disease Borrelia burgdorferi and a select number of other known human pathogens, such as Rickettsia (Rocky Mountain spotted fever and other Rickettsioses), Anaplasma phagocytophilium (Anaplasmosis), and Powassan virus. Although the full diversity of microbes carried by ticks is much greater than those definitively linked to human disease [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21] , we know strikingly little about the ecology or disease implications of most tickassociated microbes. Furthermore, we are only beginning to appreciate the broader role microbes play in tick biology.…”