Spatio-Temporal Patterns of Ticks and Molecular Survey of , with Notes on Their Phylogeny.

Hard ticks (Ixodida: Ixodidae) are medically important ectoparasites that feed on all classes of terrestrial vertebrates. Recently, we molecularly characterized hard ticks and associated spp. in the northern and central regions of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Pakistan; however, this knowledge was missing in the southern regions. This study aimed to investigate tick prevalence, host range, genetic diversity, and molecular survey of spp. in a wide range of tick species in two distinct physiographic regions of southern KP. A total of 1873 hard ticks were randomly collected from 443/837 hosts (cattle, Asian water buffaloes, horses, goats, sheep, dogs, and camels) in Lakki Marwat, Bannu, and Orakzai districts of KP. Overall, 12 tick species were morphologically identified, among which was the most prevalent species (390/1873, 20.9%), followed by (294, 15.7%), (262, 14%), (207, 11.1%), (136, 7.3%), (121, 6.5%), (107, 5.7%), (110, 5.9%), (87, 4.6%), (58, 3.1%), (54, 2.9%), and (47, 2.5%). The extracted DNA from a subset of each tick species was subjected to PCR to amplify or sequences of ticks and sequences of spp. The tick sequences showed 99-100% identities with the sequences of the same species, whereas sequences of , and showed 97-100% identities with the corresponding species. The sequence of showed 92% identity with the species from the same subgenus, such as . The sequence of spp. showed 100% identity with . Moreover, 54 ticks were found positive for with a total infection rate of 17.2%. The highest infection rate was recorded in (31.1%) and the lowest in each and (20%). All the or sequences in phylogenetic trees clustered with the same species, except , which clustered with the . () . In this study, was reported for the first time at the molecular level. The genetic characterization of ixodid ticks and molecular detection of associated will assist in the epidemiological surveillance of these parasites in the region.