Characterization of the Bacterial Microbiome of Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) Microplus Collected From Pecari Tajacu “sajino” Madre De Dios, Peru

Abstract

Background: Ticks are arthropods that can host and transmit pathogens to wild animals, domestic animals, and even humans. Methods: The bacterial microbiome of adult (males and females) and nymph Rhipicephalus microplus ticks collected from a collared peccary, Pecari tajacu, captured in the rural area of ​​Botijón Village in the Amazon region of Madre de Dios, Peru, was evaluated using metagenomics. Results: The Chao1 and Shannon–Weaver analyses indicated greater bacterial richness and diversity in female ticks (GARH; 375–4.15) and nymph ticks (GARN; 332–4.75) compared to that in male ticks (GARM; 215–3.20). Taxonomic analyses identified 185 operational taxonomic units representing 147 bacterial genera. Of the 25 most prevalent genera, Salmonella (17.5%) and Vibrio (15.0%) showed the highest relative abundance followed by several other potentially pathogenic genera, such as Paracoccus (7.8%), Staphylococcus (6.8%), Pseudomonas (6.6%), Corynebacterium (5.0%), Cloacibacterium (3.6%), and Acinetobacter (2.5%). In total, 19.7% of the detected genera are shared by GARH, GARM, and GARN, and they can be considered as the core microbiome of R. microplus.Conclusions: To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to characterize the microbiome of ticks collected from P. tajacu and to report the presence of Salmonella and Vibrio in R. microplus. The pathogenic potential and the role of these bacteria in the physiology of R. microplus should be further investigated due to the possible implications on public health and animal health in populations neighboring the habitat of P. tajacu.

Isolation and identification of Leishmania sp of Amblyomma naponense and Amblyomma humerale collected from Pecari tajacu, Tayassu pecari and Chelonoide denticulata

“…Las garrapatas colectadas de T. pecari y P. tajacu fueron clasificadas como A. naponense y las colectadas de C. denticulata como A. humerale. Estudios previos han demostrado la distribución especies del género Amblyomma en animales silvestres como en Tapirus terrestres y C. denticulata de la selva de Madre de Dios en Perú (Del Valle et al, 2018;Esser et al,2016;Rojas-Jaimes et al, 2021). Figura 3.…”

Changes in microbial composition, diversity, and functionality in theAmblyomma maculatummicrobiome following infection withRickettsia parkeri

“…Several studies have reported on the structure and microbial composition of field-collected and lab-maintained tick populations (Budachetri et al, 2014; Budachetri et al, 2017; Ross et al, 2018; Varela-Stokes et al, 2018; Thapa et al, 2019; Gill et al, 2020; Maldonado-Ruiz et al, 2021; Kumar et al, 2021; Karim et al, 2017; Zhang et al, 2019; Portillo et al, 2019; Adegoke et al, 2020; Guizzo et al, 2020; Rojas-Jaimes et al, 2021). These studies have revealed a variety of factors responsible for the differences among microbial communities between different tick samples, thus contributing extensively to our understanding of how microbial communities residing within the tick contribute to several aspects of tick biology (Ponnusamy et al, 2014; Budachetri et al, 2015; Trout-Fryxell and DeBruyn, 2016; Budachetri et al, 2018; Thapa et al, 2019; Brinkerhoff et al, 2020; Adegoke et al, 2020; Kueneman et al, 2021).…”