We report the first evidence of Rickettsia massiliae in the brown dog tick, Rhipicephalus sanguineus, from the East Coast of the United States. As part of routine pathogen surveillance, DNA samples from ixodid ticks were tested for spotted fever group rickettsiae by nested PCR. A R. massiliae-positive tick was collected off a beagle mix recently rescued from North Carolina. Infection was confirmed by partial sequence analysis of the htrA, gltA, ompB, ompA, and sca4 genes, which had 100% identity to a R. massiliae isolate from Arizona.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
BeatiL, FinidoriJP, GilotBet al.Comparison of serologic typing, sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis protein analysis, and genetic restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis for identification of rickettsiae: Characterization of two new rickettsial strains. J Clin Microbiol, 1992; 30:1922–1930.
2.
BeelerE, AbramowiczKF, ZambranoMLet al.A focus of dogs and Rickettsia massiliae-infected Rhipicephalus sanguineus in California. Am J Trop Med Hyg, 2011; 84:244–249.
3.
ChoiYJ, LeeSH, ParkKHet al.Evaluation of PCR-based assay for diagnosis of spotted fever group rickettsiosis in human serum samples. Clin Vaccine Immunol, 2005; 12:759–763.
4.
EremeevaME, BossermanEA, DemmaLJet al.Isolation and identification of Rickettsia massiliae from Rhipicephalus sanguineus ticks collected in Arizona. Appl Environ Microbiol, 2006; 72:5569–5577.
5.
EremeevaME, DaschGA, SilvermanDJ. Evaluation of a PCR assay for quantitation of Rickettsia rickettsii and closely related spotted fever group rickettsiae. J Clin Microbiol., 2003; 41:5466–5472.
6.
FornadelCM, ZhangX, SmithJDet al.High rates of Rickettsia parkeri infection in Gulf Coast ticks (Amblyomma maculatum) and identification of “Candidatus Rickettsia andeanae” from Fairfax County, Virginia. Vector Borne Zoonotic Dis, 2011; 11:1535–1539.
7.
Garcia-GarciaJC, PortilloA, NunezMJet al.A patient from Argentina infected with Rickettsia massiliae. Am J Trop Med Hyg, 2010; 82:691–692.
8.
ParolaP, SocolovschiC, JeanjeanLet al.Warmer weather linked to tick attack and emergence of severe rickettsioses. PLoS Negl Trop Dis, 2008; 2:e338.
9.
RegneryRL, SpruillCL, PlikaytisBD. Genotypic identification of rickettsiae and estimation of intraspecies sequence divergence for portions of two rickettsial genes. J Bacteriol, 1991; 173:1576–1589.
10.
RouxV, FournierPE, RaoultD. Differentiation of spotted fever group rickettsiae by sequencing and analysis of restriction fragment length polymorphism of PCR-amplified DNA of the gene encoding the protein rOmpA. J Clin Microbiol, 1996; 34:2058–2065.
11.
SekeyovaZ, RouxV, RaoultD. Phylogeny of Rickettsia spp. inferred by comparing sequences of ‘gene D’, which encodes an intracytoplasmic protein. Int J Syst Evol Microbiol, 2001; 51:1353–1360.
12.
TzianabosT, AndersonBE, McDadeJE. Detection of Rickettsia rickettsii DNA in clinical specimens by using polymerase chain reaction technology. J Clin Microbiol, 1989; 27:2866–2868.
