Mulavu Malala, Khumalo Cynthia Sipho, Moonga Lavel, Hayashida Kyoko, Mubemba Benjamin, Changula Katendi, Simulundu Edgar, Muleya Walter, Chitanga Simbarashe
Department of Biomedical Sciences, School of Health Sciences, University of Zambia, P.O Box 50110, Lusaka 10101, Zambia.
Department of Biomedical Sciences, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Zambia, P.O Box 32379, Lusaka 10101, Zambia.
Infect Med (Beijing). 2024 Aug 10;3(4):100131. doi: 10.1016/j.imj.2024.100131. eCollection 2024 Dec.
The microbiome composition of an arthropod vector may impede the growth of some pathogens, aid colonisation by pathogens or affect vector behaviour in ways that impact the transmission of pathogens. In Zambia, little is known of the microbial communities hosted by ticks and how pathogens like play a role in the microbiome composition.
This study sought to determine the microbiome of -negative and -positive ticks in selected districts of Zambia.
This was a cross-sectional study carried out on 94 ticks collected from cattle in Chongwe and Chisamba districts. The overall prevalence of spp. was detected using PCR amplification of the gene. Thereafter, both -negative and positive ticks underwent gene amplification and Illumina high-throughput sequencing. Data was analysed using QIIME2 analysis pipeline.
The prevalence of was found to be 47.9% (45/94) with prevalence in at 78.5% (22/28), at 68.9% (20/29) and having the lowest at 8.1% (3/37). Proteobacteria, Firmicutes, Actinobacteriota and Euryachaeota were the most common phyla, while endosymbionts were uncommonly detected in the ticks. Further analysis showed significant differences in microbiome composition based on detection status (=0.001) and location (=0.001), based on the alpha diversity Shannon index, Bray Curtis beta diversity and PERMANOVA, whilst differences according to life stage, tick species and genus was only shown based on the Bray Curtis beta diversity and PERMANOVA analysis.
Ultimately, this study provides valuable insights into the structure of the tick microbiome in parts of Zambia and how it is affected by the presence of .
节肢动物媒介的微生物组组成可能会阻碍某些病原体的生长，有助于病原体的定殖，或以影响病原体传播的方式影响媒介行为。在赞比亚，人们对蜱虫所携带的微生物群落以及诸如 等病原体在微生物组组成中所起的作用知之甚少。
本研究旨在确定赞比亚选定地区中 阴性和 阳性蜱虫的微生物组。
这是一项横断面研究，对从崇韦和奇桑巴地区的牛身上采集的94只蜱虫进行了研究。使用 基因的PCR扩增检测 属的总体患病率。此后，对 阴性和阳性蜱虫都进行了 基因扩增和Illumina高通量测序。使用QIIME2分析管道对数据进行分析。
发现 的患病率为47.9%（45/94），其中 的患病率为78.5%（22/28）， 的患病率为68.9%（20/29），而 的患病率最低，为8.1%（3/37）。变形菌门、厚壁菌门、放线菌门和广古菌门是最常见的门类，而内共生菌在蜱虫中很少被检测到。进一步分析表明，基于 检测状态（=0.001）和位置（=0.001），根据α多样性香农指数、布雷-柯蒂斯β多样性和PERMANOVA分析，微生物组组成存在显著差异，而根据生命阶段、蜱虫种类和属的差异仅基于布雷-柯蒂斯β多样性和PERMANOVA分析显示。
最终，本研究为赞比亚部分地区蜱虫微生物组的结构及其如何受到 的存在影响提供了有价值的见解。
