Novel Rickettsia and emergent tick-borne pathogens
A molecular survey of ticks and tick-borne pathogens in Shimba Hills National Reserve, Kenya
Abstract
Ticks are important vectors of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases of animals that can be transmitted to man (zoonoses), the majority of which originate from wildlife.
The article reports on the range of ticks and tick-borne pathogens found in Kenya’s Shimba Hills National Reserve (SHNR), an area with intensified human–livestock–wildlife interactions. The findings demonstrate previously unidentified tick–pathogen relationships and a unique tick diversity in the SHNR that may contribute to livestock, and possibly human, morbidity in the region.
This is an output from the ‘Ecology of Tick-Borne Pathogens in Wildlife and Livestock of Shimba Hills: Using the Shimba Hills National Reserve as a Model to Study the Ecology & Diversity of Ticks and Tick-Borne Pathogens in Kenya and Evaluate their Role in Pathogen Transmission’ project. It was partly funded by the UK Department for International Development, a core donor of the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology.
Citation
Mwamuye M.M., Kariuki E., Omondi D., Kabii J., Odongo D., Masiga D. and Villinger J. (2017) Novel Rickettsia and emergent tick-borne pathogens: A molecular survey of ticks and tick-borne pathogens in Shimba Hills National Reserve, Kenya. Ticks and Tick-Borne Diseases 8, 208–218. doi: 210.1016/j.ttbdis.2016.1009.1002.