Tick-Borne Bacteria in Africa: From Diagnosis to Control

Dear Colleagues,

In Africa, the expansion of the human population, the simultaneous movements of domestic and wild animals, and climate change have led to the growth and diversification of emerging and re-emerging vector-borne diseases.

Ticks are vectors for many pathogenic agents, including bacteria, protozoa, and viruses. Bacterial tick-borne diseases are numerous and have a substantial impact on human and animal health in Africa; however, data on the prevalence, diversity, and distribution of vectoring pathogenic bacteria remain scarce or absent in most African countries. In addition to bacterial pathogens, ticks are known to host diverse endosymbiotic bacteria, which are highly significant for several reasons. In particular, these microbes participate in many tick biological processes, including nutrition, fitness, reproduction, development, defense against environmental stress, immunity, and the transmission of tick-borne pathogens. In this context, African studies exploring tick associations with complex microbial communities will give key insights into the successful role of ticks as vectors in Africa.

This Special Issue aims to publish works on two broad aspects: the epidemiology of pathogenic and endosymbiotic tick-borne bacteria in African countries, and the characterization of the microbiome and tick–microbiome–pathogen interactions of given tick species in the African context. Future studies of this topic should further intensively create and/or confirm molecular methods for more accurate identification and characterization of pathogenic and endosymbiotic bacteria, and describe relationships between the tick microbiome (diversity and composition) with a functional understanding of molecular events at the tick–microbiota–pathogen interface.

For this Special Issue of Pathogens dedicated to Africa, we invite you to submit original research or review articles to share and spread your scientific knowledge in order to contribute to the accurate diagnosis and effective control of these vector-borne bacterial diseases in this beautiful continent that unites us all.

We look forward to your contributions.

Dr. Mourad Ben Said
Dr. Jandouwe Villinger
Dr. Edgar Simulundu
Guest Editors

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• Africa
• tick-borne bacteria
• molecular epidemiology
• phylogeny
• microbiome