Evidence of zoonotic rickettsiae in ixodid ticks of domestic animals in some communal farms in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa

The abundance of tick populations in South Africa represents a probable risk for both animal and human health. spp. and spp. are well-known agents of emerging human tick-borne infectious diseases worldwide. Nevertheless, the epidemiology of their infections has been underreported in South Africa. Therefore, this study aimed to profile zoonotic and species from ticks infesting domesticated animals in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. Morphological and molecular identification techniques were conducted on 1,200 tick samples collected from domestic animals before screening for the target bacterial pathogens. The molecular identification of the tick samples was based on the amplification of the 12S rRNA mitochondrial Deoxyribonucleic acid. At the same time, those of and species were carried out by amplifying fragments of A and B genes for and B gene for spp. Thereafter, the positive amplicons for B were sequenced and further analyzed. Borrelia PCRs were negative; therefore, sequencing could not be performed. Eight species of ticks belonging to three genera; and were identified. A total of 27% (320/1,200) samples were confirmed positive for of which 23% (74/320) were positive for B genes. Phylogenetic analysis of B revealed a high homology to rickettsial reference strains from GenBank, with no positive result for The generated sequences showed homology with -KX227790 (100%), -KY113111 (99.8%), (99.3%), and -JX683122 (99.1%) representative sequences in GenBank. The findings from this study revealed that ticks harbored species with possible zoonotic potential.