Tian Yuexun, Juarez Jose G, Moller-Vasquez Andrea M, Granados-Presa María, Ferreira Francisco C, Pennington Pamela M, Padilla Norma, Hamer Gabriel L, Hamer Sarah A
Texas A&M University.
Universidad del Valle de Guatemala.
Res Sq. 2024 Jul 22:rs.3.rs-4656611. doi: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-4656611/v1.
Fleas and ticks serve as vectors of multiple pathogens in the genera and cause diseases in humans and other animals. Although human rickettsiosis and bartonellosis have been reported in all countries in Central America, limited research has been conducted to investigate the natural cycles of flea- and tick-borne rickettsiosis and bartonellosis, especially in Guatemala.
We evaluated dog parasites as sentinels for zoonotic disease risk in rural Guatemala by sampling ticks and fleas from dogs, which were then identified and individually screened for and .
A total of 77 households were surveyed and 80.52% of them had dogs. Overall, 133 dogs were examined for fleas and ticks, of which 68.42% had fleas and 35.34% had ticks. A total of 433 fleas and 181 ticks were collected from the infested dogs, with an additional 33 ticks collected from house walls. Three flea species were identified: (70%), (11.8%), and sp. (17.8%). Among the collected ticks, 97% were with the rest being , and . were detected in six , in one sp., and in two , while Candidatus was detected in one was detected only in fleas, including three sp. infected with subsp. , and sp., respectively, and 11 infected with .
This study reports Candidatus and subsp. in Guatemala for the first time, and indicates the potential risk of human and dog exposure to and species. These results show that dogs provide critical information relevant to managing human potential exposure to flea- and tick-borne pathogens in rural Guatemala.
跳蚤和蜱虫是多个属病原体的传播媒介，可导致人类和其他动物患病。尽管中美洲所有国家均报告过人立克次体病和巴尔通体病，但对跳蚤和蜱虫传播的立克次体病和巴尔通体病自然循环的研究有限，尤其是在危地马拉。
我们通过对危地马拉农村地区狗身上的蜱虫和跳蚤进行采样，评估狗寄生虫作为人畜共患病风险哨兵的作用，然后对其进行鉴定并分别筛查 和 。
共调查了77户家庭，其中80.52%有狗。总体而言，对133只狗进行了跳蚤和蜱虫检查，其中68.42%有跳蚤，35.34%有蜱虫。从受感染的狗身上共采集到433只跳蚤和181只蜱虫，另外从房屋墙壁上采集到33只蜱虫。鉴定出三种跳蚤： （70%）、 （11.8%）和 属（17.8%）。在采集到的蜱虫中，97%是 ，其余为 、 和 。在6只 、1只 属和2只 中检测到 ，而在1只 中检测到“Ca. Rickettsia andeanae”。 仅在跳蚤中检测到，包括分别感染 亚种、 和 属的3只跳蚤，以及感染 的11只 。
本研究首次在危地马拉报告了“Ca. Rickettsia andeanae ”和 亚种，并表明人类和狗接触 属和 属物种的潜在风险。这些结果表明，狗提供了与管理危地马拉农村地区人类潜在接触跳蚤和蜱虫传播病原体相关的关键信息。
