Journal of Veterinary Science

The Korean Society of Veterinary Science (대한수의학회)
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Characterization of microbiota diversity of engorged ticks collected from dogs in China

  • Wang, Seongjin (Epidemiological Investigation Analysis, Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency) ;
  • Hua, Xiuguo (Shanghai Key Laboratory of Veterinary Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University) ;
  • Cui, Li (Shanghai Key Laboratory of Veterinary Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University)
  • Received : 2020.11.26
  • Accepted : 2021.04.07
  • Published : 2021.05.31
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Abstract

Background: Ticks are one of the most common external parasites in dogs, and are associated with the transmission of a number of major zoonoses, which result in serious harm to human health and even death. Also, the increasing number of pet dogs and pet owners in China has caused concern regarding human tick-borne illnesses. Accordingly, studies are needed to gain a complete understanding of the bacterial composition and diversity of the ticks that parasitize dogs. Objectives: To date, there have been relatively few reports on the analysis of the bacterial community structure and diversity in ticks that parasitize dogs. The objective of this study was to investigate the microbial composition and diversity of parasitic ticks of dogs, and assessed the effect of tick sex and geographical region on the bacterial composition in two tick genera collected from dogs in China. Methods: A total of 178 whole ticks were subjected to a 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) next generation sequencing analysis. The Illumina MiSeq platform targeting the V3-V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene was used to characterize the bacterial communities of the collected ticks. Sequence analysis and taxonomic assignment were performed using QIIME 2 and the GreenGene database, respectively. After clustering the sequences into taxonomic units, the sequences were quality-filtered and rarefied. Results: After pooling 24 tick samples, we identified a total of 2,081 operational taxonomic units, which were assigned to 23 phyla and 328 genera, revealing a diverse bacterial community profile. The high, moderate and low prevalent taxa include 46, 101, and 182 genera, respectively. Among them, dominant taxa include environmental bacterial genera, such as Psychrobacter and Burkholderia. Additionally, some known tick-associated endosymbionts were also detected, including Coxiella, Rickettsia, and Ricketssiella. Also, the potentially pathogenic genera Staphylococcus and Pseudomonas were detected in the tick pools. Moreover, our preliminary study found that the differences in microbial communities are more dependent on the sampling location than tick sex in the tick specimens collected from dogs. Conclusions: The findings of this study support the need for future research on the microbial population present in ticks collected from dogs in China.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

We would like to express our gratitude to the following veterinarians for their generous support in the sample collection. Zhuming from the police dog station of Shanghai public security bureau; Pengmenghua from the Nanchang police dog station of the ministry of the public security; Xiufuxiao from the Shenyang police dog station of the ministry of the public security; Taoshunqi from Zhumadian animal disease control center in Henan province; Zhangbin from the Jiangsu animal husbandry and veterinary college; Yudayi from the animal disease control center of Minhang district, Shanghai.

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