Tick Infestation and Molecular Detection of Tick-Borne Pathogens from Indian Long-Eared Hedgehogs (Hemiechinus collaris) in Pakistan
Simple Summary
Abstract
1. Introduction
2. Materials and Methods
2.1. Study Site
2.2. Sampling and Data Collection
2.3. Tick Identification
2.4. DNA Extraction from Ticks and Blood
2.5. PCR Confirmation of Tick Species
2.6. PCR Screening for Microbes
2.7. Sequencing and Statistical Analysis
3. Results
3.1. Tick Infestation
3.2. Prevalence of TBPs in Hedgehog Blood and Ticks
3.3. Phylogenetic Analysis
4. Discussion
5. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Pathogen | Sequence | Target Region | Size (bp) | Reference |
---|---|---|---|---|
Anaplasma spp. | 5′-CAGAGCATTGACGCACTACC-3′ | msp1b | 245 | [22] |
5′-TCCAGACCTTCCCTAACTA-3′ | ||||
Babesia spp. | 5′-AGAGGGACTCCTGTGCTTCA-‘3 | 18s rRNA | 321 | [23] |
5′-GACGAATCGGAAAAGCCACG-‘3 | ||||
Theileria spp. | 5′-AAGTATAGCAACTGCTTTTGTT-3′ | Cyt-b | 517 | [23] |
5′-TCCTGCCATTGCCAAAAGTC-3′ |
Variables | Category | Total Captured | Infested | Prevalence (%) | Chi-Square | p-Value |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Sex | Female | 27 | 8 | 29.6 | 0.465 | 0.563 |
Male | 37 | 8 | 21.6 | |||
Age | Adult | 48 | 11 | 22.9 | 0.505 | 0.519 |
Young | 16 | 5 | 31.2 | |||
Urbanicity | Rural | 38 | 10 | 26.3 | 0.769 | 0.506 |
Urban | 26 | 6 | 23.1 | |||
Habitat | Agriculture land | 35 | 9 | 25.7 | 0.885 | 0.559 |
Animal farm | 29 | 7 | 24.1 | |||
District | Okara | 23 | 6 | 26.1 | 0.030 | 0.985 |
Pakpattan | 20 | 5 | 25.0 | |||
Sahiwal | 21 | 5 | 23.8 |
Variables | Category | Total | Prevalence (%) |
---|---|---|---|
Sex | Male | 74 | 67.9 |
Female | 35 | 32.1 | |
Life stage | Adult | 100 | 91.7 |
Nymph | 9 | 8.3 |
Variables | Anaplasma marginale |
---|---|
Sex | |
Male (n = 8) | 1 (12.5%) |
Female (n = 8) | 0 |
Age | |
Adult (n = 11) | 1 (9.1%) |
Young (n = 5) | 0 |
Urbanicity | |
Rural (n = 10) | 1 (10.0%) |
Urban (n = 6) | 0 |
Location | |
Okara (n = 6) | 0 |
Pakpattan (n = 5) | 0 |
Sahiwal (n = 5) | 1 (20.0%) |
Variables | Category | Anaplasma marginale | Babesia bigemina | Theileria lestoquardi | Total |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Sex | Male | 2 (2.7%) | 1 (1.4%) | 2 (2.7%) | 74 |
Female | 1 (2.9%) | 2 (5.7%) | 2 (5.7%) | 35 | |
Life stage | Adult | 3 (3.0%) | 3 (3.0%) | 4 (4.0%) | 100 |
Nymph | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9 |
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Ali, S.; von Fricken, M.E.; Azam, A.; Hassan, A.; Cleary, N.G.; Iftikhar, K.; Rashid, M.I.; Razzaq, A. Tick Infestation and Molecular Detection of Tick-Borne Pathogens from Indian Long-Eared Hedgehogs (Hemiechinus collaris) in Pakistan. Animals 2024, 14, 3185. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani14223185
Ali S, von Fricken ME, Azam A, Hassan A, Cleary NG, Iftikhar K, Rashid MI, Razzaq A. Tick Infestation and Molecular Detection of Tick-Borne Pathogens from Indian Long-Eared Hedgehogs (Hemiechinus collaris) in Pakistan. Animals. 2024; 14(22):3185. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani14223185
Chicago/Turabian StyleAli, Shahzad, Michael E. von Fricken, Asima Azam, Ahmad Hassan, Nora G. Cleary, Kiran Iftikhar, Muhammad Imran Rashid, and Abdul Razzaq. 2024. "Tick Infestation and Molecular Detection of Tick-Borne Pathogens from Indian Long-Eared Hedgehogs (Hemiechinus collaris) in Pakistan" Animals 14, no. 22: 3185. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani14223185
APA StyleAli, S., von Fricken, M. E., Azam, A., Hassan, A., Cleary, N. G., Iftikhar, K., Rashid, M. I., & Razzaq, A. (2024). Tick Infestation and Molecular Detection of Tick-Borne Pathogens from Indian Long-Eared Hedgehogs (Hemiechinus collaris) in Pakistan. Animals, 14(22), 3185. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani14223185