Abstract
ABSTRACTBackground: Tick-borne pathogens (TBPs) are frequently studied in developed nations but are often neglected in emerging countries. In Mongolia, TBP research is especially sparse, with few research reports focusing upon human and domestic animal disease and tick ecology. However, little information exists on TBPs in small mammals.Methods: In this 2016 cross-sectional pilot study, we sought to uniquely study wildlife for TBPs. We live-trapped small mammals, and tested their whole blood, serum and ear biopsy samples for molecular or serological evidence of Borrelia spp., Rickettsia spp., and Anaplasma spp./Ehrlichia spp.Results: Of 64 small mammals collected, 56.0%, 39.0% and 0.0% of animals were positive by molecular assays for Borrelia spp., Rickettsia spp., and Anaplasma spp./Erhlicia spp., respectively. 41.9% were seropositive for A. phagocytophilum and 24.2% of animals were seropositive for Rickettsia rickettsii.Conclusion: This pilot data demonstrates evidence of a number of TBPs among small mammal populations in northern Mongolia and suggests the need to further investigate what role these mammals play in human and domestic animal disease.
Highlights
Tick-borne pathogens (TBPs) are frequently studied in developed nations but are often neglected in emerging countries
While speciation of pathogens was not possible in this pilot study, PCR results suggest that there is a high prevalence of Borrelia spp. (56.4%) and Rickettsia spp. (38.8%) in a number of small mammal species captured in this study
While Dermacentor spp. was the only tick species identified on animals captured during this study, I. persculcatus ticks were present in these sampled areas suggesting that Borrelia spp. were likely present in animal reservoirs captured [3]
Summary
Tick-borne pathogens (TBPs) are frequently studied in developed nations but are often neglected in emerging countries. While much is known about TBPs in developed settings [1,2,3], major gaps of knowledge remain regarding ticks and sylvatic transmission cycles in developing countries This holds true in Mongolia, where a number of studies documenting tick diseases of clinical relevance have confirmed the presence of TBPs [4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12], but research regarding wild animal reservoirs has been largely neglected. Further understanding of wild animal reservoirs and disease ecology of TBPs in Mongolia is important, given that approximately 33% of the country’s total human population relies on herding, an activity by which individuals spend long periods of time outdoors and have increased contact with animals leading to a greater exposure to ticks
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