Ticks and tick-borne rickettsiae from dogs in El Salvador, with report of the human pathogen Rickettsia parkeri.
Amblyomma
Canis familiaris
Ixodidae
Rickettsiae
Spotted fever
Journal
Ticks and tick-borne diseases
ISSN: 1877-9603
Titre abrégé: Ticks Tick Borne Dis
Pays: Netherlands
ID NLM: 101522599
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
Sep 2023
Sep 2023
Historique:
received:
07
03
2023
revised:
09
05
2023
accepted:
14
05
2023
medline:
19
6
2023
pubmed:
28
5
2023
entrez:
28
5
2023
Statut:
ppublish
Résumé
Twelve tick species have been reported in El Salvador; however, information regarding ticks infesting domestic dogs is lacking, and pathogenic tick-borne Rickettsia species have never been reported in El Salvador. This work evaluated ticks infesting 230 dogs from ten municipalities in El Salvador from July 2019 to August 2020. A total of 1,264 ticks were collected and identified into five species: Rhipicephalus sanguineus sensu lato (s.l.), Rhipicephalus microplus, Amblyomma mixtum, Amblyomma ovale, and Amblyoma cf. parvum. The tick R. sanguineus s.l. was the most frequent species in all localities (81.3% of sampled dogs), followed by Amblyomma mixtum (13.0%), Amblyomma ovale (10.9%) and Amblyomma cf. parvum (10.4%). The overall mean intensity of tick infestation was 5.5 ticks/dog. The highest specific mean intensity value was for R. sanguineus s.l. (4.8 ticks/dog), varying from 1.6 to 2.7 ticks/dog for the three Amblyomma species. From a random sample of 288 tick specimens tested molecularly for the presence of rickettsial agents, three spotted fever group Rickettsia were detected: Rickettsia amblyommatis in 90% (36/40) A. mixtum, 46% (11/24) A. cf. parvum, 4% (7/186) R. sanguineus s.l., and 17% Amblyomma spp.; Rickettsia parkeri strain Atlantic rainforest in 4% (1/25) A. ovale; and an unnamed rickettsia agent, designated as 'Rickettsia sp. ES-A.cf.parvum', in 4% (1/24) A. cf. parvum. Our finding of R. parkeri strain Atlantic rainforest in A. ovale is highly relevant because this agent has been associated to spotted fever illness in other Latin American countries, where A. ovale is implicated as its main vector. These findings suggest that spotted fever cases caused by R. parkeri strain Atlantic rainforest could be occurring in El Salvador.
Identifiants
pubmed: 37245252
pii: S1877-959X(23)00087-0
doi: 10.1016/j.ttbdis.2023.102206
pii:
doi:
Types de publication
Journal Article
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Pagination
102206Informations de copyright
Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier GmbH.
Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts
Declaration of Competing Interest Authors state no conflict of interest.