Prevalence and Identification of Sensu Lato Genospecies in Ticks from Northeastern China.

Lyme disease is considered as one of important tick-transmitted zoonosis in northeastern China, where the causative agents, the sensu lato (s.l.) complex, remain poorly characterized. The purpose of the present study was to determine the prevalence and genospecies of s.l. in ticks in northeastern China. In May, 2015, a total of 2785 unfed adult ticks were collected in the Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces of northeastern China, with the predominant tick species of (59.9%), followed by (14.8%), (8.9%), (9.4%), and (7.0%). Only was tested positive for spirochetes DNA by PCR, targeting the 5S-23S rRNA intergenic spacer and 16S rRNA genes, with a prevalence of 1.9%. Phylogenetic analysis based on the partial 5S-23S rRNA intergenic spacer and 16S rRNA genes showed that these positive samples were grouped into four pathogenic genospecies for humans, including (2.8%), (0.2%), (0.1%), and (0.1%). These results showed that is the predominant genospecies and is the main tick host and carrier in northeastern China. To our knowledge, were detected for the first time in China.