Climate Change and Ticks and Tick-Borne Diseases

A special issue of Pathogens (ISSN 2076-0817). This special issue belongs to the section "Ticks".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2023) | Viewed by 5778

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Veterinary Biosciences, Melbourne Veterinary School, Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
Interests: molecular diagnosis and epidemiology of parasites of veterinary and medical significance; discovery of anthelmintic drug
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UMR BIPAR, INRAE, ANSES, Ecole Nationale Vétérinaire d'Alfort, Université Paris-Est, 94700 Maisons-Alfort, France
Interests: tick-host-pathogen interactions; emerging tick-borne pathogens; Anaplasma; Ehrlichia; epidemiology; tick microbiome; α-Gal
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
Melbourne Veterinary School, Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
Interests: ticks; tick-borne diseases; diagnostics; resistance; microbiome; tick-borne zoonoses
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The aim of this Special Issue is to update and deepen our knowledge related to all aspects of climate change and ticks and tick-borne diseases.

The global climate has been changing over the last century and it is expected to continue to change over this century unless serious efforts are undertaken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other factors which contribute to global warming. Ticks and tick-borne diseases (TTBDs) are directly impacted by climate change due to the sensitivity of their life stages to temperature and humidity. This means that in some regions a warming climate may increase tick survival, shorten lifecycles and lengthen the duration of tick activity seasons. Indirect effects of climate change on host communities may, with changes in tick abundance, facilitate the enhanced transmission of tick-borne pathogens. High temperatures and extreme weather events are anticipated with climate change, and these may reduce tick survival and pathogen transmission in some locations. Studies of the possible effects of climate change on TTBDs to date generally are poorly understood. This Special Issue is aimed to fill knowledge gaps in the literature to publish a collection of papers on climate change and TTBDs.

Dr. Abdul Jabbar
Dr. Alejandro Cabezas-Cruz
Dr. Abdul Ghafar
Guest Editors

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

13 pages, 2468 KiB  
Article
Role of Recognition MicroRNAs in Hemaphysalis longicornis and Theileria orientalis Interactions
by Jin Luo, Yangchun Tan, Shuaiyang Zhao, Qiaoyun Ren, Guiquan Guan, Jianxun Luo, Hong Yin and Guangyuan Liu
Pathogens 2024, 13(4), 288; https://doi.org/10.3390/pathogens13040288 - 28 Mar 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1262 | Correction
Abstract
Ticks are an important type of pathogen transmission vector, and pathogens not only cause serious harm to livestock but can also infect humans. Because of the roles that ticks play in disease transmission, reducing tick pathogen infectivity has become increasingly important and requires [...] Read more.
Ticks are an important type of pathogen transmission vector, and pathogens not only cause serious harm to livestock but can also infect humans. Because of the roles that ticks play in disease transmission, reducing tick pathogen infectivity has become increasingly important and requires the identification and characterization of these pathogens and their interaction mechanisms. In this study, we determined the miRNA expression profile of Hemaphysalis longicornis infected with Theileria orientalis, predicted the target genes of miRNAs involved in this infection process, and investigated the role of miRNA target recognition during host–pathogen interactions. The results showed that longipain is a target gene of miR-5309, which was differentially expressed at different developmental stages and in various tissues in the control group. However, the miR-5309 level was reduced in the infection group. Analysis of the interaction between miRNA and the target gene showed that miR-5309 negatively regulated the expression of the longipain protein during the infection of H. longicornis with T. orientalis. To verify this inference, we compared longipain with the blocking agent orientalis. In this study, the expression of longipain was upregulated by the inhibition of miR-5309 in ticks, and the ability of the antibody produced by the tick-derived protein to attenuate T. orientalis infection was verified through animal immunity and antigen–antibody binding tests. The results showed that expression of the longipain + GST fusion protein caused the cattle to produce antibodies that could be successfully captured by ticks, and cellular immunity was subsequently activated in the ticks, resulting in a subtractive effect on T. orientalis infection. This research provides ideas for the control of ticks and tickborne diseases and a research basis for studying the mechanism underlying the interaction between ticks and pathogens. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Climate Change and Ticks and Tick-Borne Diseases)
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9 pages, 549 KiB  
Article
Molecular and Serological Identification of Anaplasma marginale and Borrelia burgdorferi in Cattle and Ticks from Nuevo Leon, Northern Mexico
by José Ángel Ortiz-Ramírez, Jorge Jesús Rodríguez-Rojas, Jesús Jaime Hernández-Escareño, Kame-A Galan-Huerta, Eduardo Alfonso Rebollar-Téllez, Gustavo Moreno-Degollado, Carlos E. Medina-De la Garza, Rosa María Sánchez-Casas and Ildefonso Fernández-Salas
Pathogens 2023, 12(6), 784; https://doi.org/10.3390/pathogens12060784 - 31 May 2023
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Abstract
Ticks and tick-borne diseases affect livestock productivity and cause significant economic losses. Therefore, surveillance of these pathogens and vectors is paramount to reducing these effects in livestock. This study aimed to identify Anaplasma marginale and Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato in ticks collected from [...] Read more.
Ticks and tick-borne diseases affect livestock productivity and cause significant economic losses. Therefore, surveillance of these pathogens and vectors is paramount to reducing these effects in livestock. This study aimed to identify Anaplasma marginale and Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato in ticks collected from cattle. Molecular biology techniques were utilized to identify A. marginale for both types of samples, i.e., ticks and bovine blood. Serology of cattle using indirect immunofluorescence assay (IFA) was conducted to determine antibodies to B. burgdorferi s.l. from seven locations in Nuevo Leon, Mexico, between 2015 and 2017. From 404 bovines, 2880 ticks were collected: Rhipicephalus microplus (2391 females and 395 males), Amblyomma spp. (51 females and 42 males) and Dermacentor variabilis (1 female). Rhipicephalus microplus represented the largest specimens captured, with 96.7% within the seven study sites. PCR processed only 15% (442) of tick samples to identify A. marginale. Field genera proportions were followed to select testing tick numbers. Results showed that 9.9% (44/442) of A. maginale infected the pooled tick species, whereas the highest percent corresponded to 9.4% (38/404) in R. microplus. Regarding the molecular analysis of blood samples, 214 of 337 (63.5%) were positive for A. maginale. In each of the seven locations, at least one bovine sample tested positive for A. maginale. Borrelia burgdorferi s.l. was not found either in the ticks or serum samples. Two A.marginale DNA nucleotide sequences obtained in this study were deposited in the GenBank with the following accession numbers OR050501 cattle, and OR050500 R.microplus tick. Results of this work point to current distribution of bovine anaplasmosis in northern Mexico. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Climate Change and Ticks and Tick-Borne Diseases)
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11 pages, 2573 KiB  
Article
Description of Male, Redescription of Female, Host Record, and Phylogenetic Position of Haemaphysalis danieli
by Iftikhar Ahmad, Shafi Ullah, Abdulaziz Alouffi, Mashal M. Almutairi, Mehran Khan, Muhammad Numan, Sher Zaman Safi, Lidia Chitimia-Dobler, Tetsuya Tanaka and Abid Ali
Pathogens 2022, 11(12), 1495; https://doi.org/10.3390/pathogens11121495 - 8 Dec 2022
Cited by 13 | Viewed by 1974
Abstract
Haemaphysalis ticks are globally distributed with the greatest diversity in the Oriental region. This study aimed to primarily provide information on the morphology, host record, and preliminary phylogenetic position of a poorly known tick Haemaphysalis danieli. Herds comprised of goats and sheep [...] Read more.
Haemaphysalis ticks are globally distributed with the greatest diversity in the Oriental region. This study aimed to primarily provide information on the morphology, host record, and preliminary phylogenetic position of a poorly known tick Haemaphysalis danieli. Herds comprised of goats and sheep were examined for this tick species in Upper Dir, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. A total of 127 ticks, including males (n = 15, 11.8%) and females (n = 112, 88.2%), were collected, and morphologically identified as H. danieli. The morphological identification was confirmed through the 16S rDNA and cytochrome c oxidase (cox1) sequences. Phylogenetic analysis inferred based on 16S rDNA and cox1 showed a close evolutionary relationship of H. danieli with a conspecific from China and an undetermined Haemaphysalis sp. from China and Anatolia. A total of 32/223 (14.3%) goats in two different herds were the only host infested by H. danieli. The earliest study provided the morphological description of H. danieli male, host record, and phylogenetic position. The information provided herein could assist in minimizing the knowledge gap regarding the systematic and taxonomy of Haemaphysalis species. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Climate Change and Ticks and Tick-Borne Diseases)
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