Metagenomic profiles of tick pathogens from across Mongolia, using next generation sequencing.

Tick-borne diseases are a major public health concern in Mongolia. Nomadic pastoralists, which make up ~ 26% of Mongolia's population, are at an increased risk of both tick bite exposure and economic loss associated with clinical disease in herds. This study sought to further characterize tick-borne pathogens present in ticks ( = 1,773) sampled in 2019 from 15 of Mongolia's 21 aimags (provinces). The ticks were morphologically identified and sorted into 377 pools which were then screened using Next-Generation Sequencing paired with confirmatory PCR and DNA sequence analysis. spp. were detected in 88.33% of pools, while spp. and spp. were detected in 3.18 and 0.79% of pools, respectively. Khentii had the highest infection rate for spp. (76.61%; CI: 34.65-94.79%), while Arkhangai had the highest infection rate for spp. (7.79%; CI:4.04-13.72%). The exclusive detection of spp. in tick pools collected from livestock supports previous work in this area that suggests livestock play a significant role in disease maintenance. The detection of and demonstrates a heightened risk for infection throughout Mongolia, with this study, to our knowledge, documenting the first detection of in ticks collected in Mongolia. Further research deploying NGS methods is needed to characterize tick-borne pathogens in other endemic tick species found in Mongolia, including and .