Preprint Article Version 1 Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed

Molecular Evidence of Rickettsia conorii subsp. raoultii and Rickettsia felis in Haemaphysalis intermedia Ticks in Sirumalai, Eastern Ghats, Tamil Nadu, South India

Krishnamoorthy Nallan
ORCID logo ,
Veerapathiran Ayyavu
,
Elango Ayyanar
,
Balaji Thirupathi
,
Bhavna Gupta
,
Panneer Devaraju
ORCID logo ,
Ashwani Kumar
ORCID logo ,
Paramasivan Rajaiah
*
Version 1 : Received: 6 June 2023 / Approved: 9 June 2023 / Online: 9 June 2023 (16:43:56 CEST)

A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.

Nallan, K.; Ayyavu, V.; Ayyanar, E.; Thirupathi, B.; Gupta, B.; Devaraju, P.; Kumar, A.; Rajaiah, P. Molecular Evidence of Rickettsia conorii subsp. raoultii and Rickettsia felis in Haemaphysalis intermedia Ticks in Sirumalai, Eastern Ghats, Tamil Nadu, South India. Microorganisms 2023, 11, 1713. Nallan, K.; Ayyavu, V.; Ayyanar, E.; Thirupathi, B.; Gupta, B.; Devaraju, P.; Kumar, A.; Rajaiah, P. Molecular Evidence of Rickettsia conorii subsp. raoultii and Rickettsia felis in Haemaphysalis intermedia Ticks in Sirumalai, Eastern Ghats, Tamil Nadu, South India. Microorganisms 2023, 11, 1713.

Abstract

Rickettsia is an important pathogenic entity among tick-borne diseases (TBD), which are considered serious emerging public health problems globally. In India, though the widespread distribution of ticks and TBD has been documented, its real burden remains underreported. In a preliminary attempt, rickettsial surveillance was carried out in ticks collected from Sirumalai, Eastern Ghats in Tamil Nadu by using pathogen genome-based phylogenetic inferences generated through multi-locus sequence typing (MLST), targeting the genes 16s rRNA, OmpA, OmpB, and gltA by nested PCR. The laboratory evidence confirms the circulation of Rickettsia in Haemaphysalis intermedia species collected from this area. Analysis of the four gene sequences detected demonstrates their closest identity to the spotted fever group (SFG) available in the GenBank database. Further, multiple sequence alignment with other sequences derived from the GenBank database showed close relatedness to Rickettsia conorii subsp. raoultii (16s rDNA-99.32%, ompA-93.38%, ompB-97.39%, and gltA-98.57%) and Rickettsia felis (ompA-100%, ompB-100% and gltA-99.41%). With this genomic evidence, the circulation of rickettsial pathogens in the pools of H. intermedia ticks infesting livestock in the Sirumalai foothill area has been demonstrated and to complement the microscopic identification of the tick species, DNA barcodes were generated for H. intermedia using the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I gene (COI). Nevertheless, R. raoultii and R. felis were found to be the aetiological agents of tick-borne lymphadenopathy and flea-borne spotted fever in human cases, respectively. Further study on the determination of their diversity, distribution, clinical relevance, and potential risk to the local community in these areas is highly warranted.

Keywords

Rickettsia raoultii; Rickettsia felis: Haemaphysalis intermedia: DNA Barcode: Spotted fever group (SFG); Rickettsia; MLST; Tick borne pathogens (TBP).

Subject

Public Health and Healthcare, Public Health and Health Services

Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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