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Circulation of Rickettsia species and rickettsial endosymbionts among small mammals and their ectoparasites in Eastern Slovakia

  • Arthropods and Medical Entomology - Original Paper
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Abstract

Bacteria belonging to the genus Rickettsia are known as causative agents of vector-borne zoonotic diseases, such as spotted fevers, epidemic typhus and endemic typhus. Different species of ticks, mites and fleas could act as reservoirs and arthropod vectors of different pathogenic Rickettsia species. The aim of this work was to establish active surveillance of Rickettsia spp. in mites, ticks and fleas collected from small mammals (rodents and shrews) in Eastern Slovakia. A total of 964 animal ear biopsies, 871 mites, 667 ticks and 743 fleas were collected from small mammals in the Košice region, Eastern Slovakia. All specimens were identified using specialized taxonomic keys, and were conserved in ethanol until DNA extraction was performed. After DNA extraction, identification of Rickettsia species was performed by PCR-based methods. The total prevalence of rickettsiae from ear biopsies was 4.6% (95% CI, 3.2–5.9), in tested mites 9.3% (95% CI, 7.4–11.2), 17.2% (95% CI, 14.3–20.1) in I. ricinus ticks and 3.5% (95% CI, 2.2–4.8) in fleas. Sequence analysis of the partial gltA gene and Rickettsia helvetica-, Rickettsia slovaca-, Rickettsia raoultii- species specific real-time PCR tests revealed the presence of R. helvetica, R. slovaca, unidentified Rickettsia and rickettsial endosymbionts. These pathogenic and symbiotic species were confirmed in the following ectoparasite species—Laelaps jettmari, Haemogamasus nidi, Laelaps agilis and Eulaelaps stabularis mites, Ixodes ricinus ticks, Ctenophthalmus solutus, C. assimilis and Megabothris turbidus fleas infesting host—Apodemus agrarius, A. flavicollis, Microtus arvalis and Myodes glareolus small mammals. These results confirm the circulation of R. helvetica, R. slovaca, unidentified Rickettsia and rickettsial endosymbionts in mites, ticks and fleas collected on small mammals in the Košice region, Eastern Slovakia.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Ladislav Mošanský and Monika Onderová for help in the field and laboratory work.

Funding

This study was financially supported by the VEGA No. 2/0068/17 and VEGA 1/0084/18 projects from the Scientific Grant Agency of Ministry of Education and Slovak Academy of Sciences.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Virology, Biomedical Research Center, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Dúbravská cesta 9, 845 05, Bratislava, Slovak Republic

    Eva Špitalská & Eva Boldišová

  2. Institute of Zoology Slovak Academy of Sciences, Dúbravská cesta 9, 845 06, Bratislava, Slovak Republic

    Jasna Kraljik & Michal Stanko

  3. Institute of Parasitology Slovak Academy of Sciences, Hlinkova 3, 040 01, Košice, Slovak Republic

    Dana Miklisová & Michal Stanko

  4. Department of Infectious Diseases and Public Health, Jockey Club College of Veterinary Medicine and Life Sciences, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR

    Olivier A. E. Sparagano

Authors
  1. Eva Špitalská
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  2. Jasna Kraljik
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  3. Dana Miklisová
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  4. Eva Boldišová
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  5. Olivier A. E. Sparagano
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  6. Michal Stanko
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Eva Špitalská.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

All applicable international, national, and/or institutional guidelines for the care and use of animals were followed.

All procedures performed in studies involving animals were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institution or practice at which the studies were conducted.

Small mammals were euthanized according to the laws of the Slovak Republic under the licences of the Ministry of Environment of the Slovak Republic No. 297/108/06–3.1 and No. 6743/2008–2.1.

This article does not contain any studies with human participants performed by any of the authors.

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Section Editor: Charlotte Oskam

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ESM 1

Phylogenetic tree inferred from comparison of the Rickettsia gltA partial sequences. The evolutionary history was inferred using the neighbour-joining method. The percentage of replicate trees in which the associated taxa clustered together in the bootstrap test (1000 replicates) is shown next to the branches. The evolutionary distances were computed using the number of different methods and are in the units of the number of base differences per sequence. GenBank accession numbers are included. (PNG 77 kb)

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Špitalská, E., Kraljik, J., Miklisová, D. et al. Circulation of Rickettsia species and rickettsial endosymbionts among small mammals and their ectoparasites in Eastern Slovakia. Parasitol Res 119, 2047–2057 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-020-06701-8

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