Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2019 Jan 28:9:3.
doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2019.00003. eCollection 2019.

Human Tick-Borne Diseases in Australia

Mona Dehhaghi  1   2 , Hamed Kazemi Shariat Panahi  1   2 , Edward C Holmes  3 , Bernard J Hudson  4 , Richard Schloeffel  5 , Gilles J Guillemin  1
Affiliations
Review

Human Tick-Borne Diseases in Australia

Mona Dehhaghi et al. Front Cell Infect Microbiol. .

Abstract

There are 17 human-biting ticks known in Australia. The bites of Ixodes holocyclus, Ornithodoros capensis, and Ornithodoros gurneyi can cause paralysis, inflammation, and severe local and systemic reactions in humans, respectively. Six ticks, including Amblyomma triguttatum, Bothriocroton hydrosauri, Haemaphysalis novaeguineae, Ixodes cornuatus, Ixodes holocyclus, and Ixodes tasmani may transmit Coxiella burnetii, Rickettsia australis, Rickettsia honei, or Rickettsia honei subsp. marmionii. These bacterial pathogens cause Q fever, Queensland tick typhus (QTT), Flinders Island spotted fever (FISF), and Australian spotted fever (ASF). It is also believed that babesiosis can be transmitted by ticks to humans in Australia. In addition, Argas robertsi, Haemaphysalis bancrofti, Haemaphysalis longicornis, Ixodes hirsti, Rhipicephalus australis, and Rhipicephalus sanguineus ticks may play active roles in transmission of other pathogens that already exist or could potentially be introduced into Australia. These pathogens include Anaplasma spp., Bartonella spp., Burkholderia spp., Francisella spp., Dera Ghazi Khan virus (DGKV), tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV), Lake Clarendon virus (LCV), Saumarez Reef virus (SREV), Upolu virus (UPOV), or Vinegar Hill virus (VINHV). It is important to regularly update clinicians' knowledge about tick-borne infections because these bacteria and arboviruses are pathogens of humans that may cause fatal illness. An increase in the incidence of tick-borne infections of human may be observed in the future due to changes in demography, climate change, and increase in travel and shipments and even migratory patterns of birds or other animals. Moreover, the geographical conditions of Australia are favorable for many exotic ticks, which may become endemic to Australia given an opportunity. There are some human pathogens, such as Rickettsia conorii and Rickettsia rickettsii that are not currently present in Australia, but can be transmitted by some human-biting ticks found in Australia, such as Rhipicephalus sanguineus, if they enter and establish in this country. Despite these threats, our knowledge of Australian ticks and tick-borne diseases is in its infancy.

Keywords: Lyme-like disease; Q fever; anaplasmosis; arbovirus; babesiosis; bartonellosis; rickettsial infection; tick paralysis.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Major events in tick evolution.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Classification of Australian human-biting ticks. Tick-borne diseases of humans that are transmitted (red boxes with vertical lines), potential tick-borne diseases of humans that may be transmitted (yellow boxes with dots), and other human-biting ticks (white boxes with upward diagonals).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Geographical distribution of 10 potentially human biting-ticks of Australia; Tick-borne diseases of humans that are transmitted (red and 1) and potential tick-borne diseases of humans that may be transmitted (yellow and 2).
Figure 4
Figure 4
Phylogenetic analysis of pathogenic bacteria of humans that are transmitted (red and *) or could potentially be transmitted by human-biting ticks (black) in Australia inferred using a Maximum Likelihood method based on the 16S rRNA gene sequence comparison (1,400 to 1,500 nucleotides).
Figure 5
Figure 5
Life cycle of Borrelia in tick Ixodes spp.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Abdad M. Y., Abdallah R. A., El Karkouri K., Beye M., Stenos J., Owen H., et al. . (2017). Rickettsia gravesii sp. nov.: a novel spotted fever group rickettsia in Western Australian Amblyomma triguttatum triguttatum ticks. Int. J. Syst. Evol. Microbiol. 67, 3156–3161. 10.1099/ijsem.0.001865 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Aravena Román M., Merritt A., Inglis T. J. (2015). First case of Francisella bacteraemia in Western Australia. New Microbes New Infect. 8, 75–77. 10.1016/j.nmni.2015.10.004 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Arundel J. H. (1988). Ectoparasitic Diseases of Sheep, Cattle, Goats and Horses. Canberra, ACT: Australian Government Publishing Service.
    1. Arvand M., Feil E. J., Giladi M., Boulouis H. J., Viezens J. (2007). Multi-locus sequence typing of Bartonella henselae isolates from three continents reveals hypervirulent and feline-associated clones. PLoS ONE 2:e1346. 10.1371/journal.pone.0001346 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Ash A., Elliot A., Godfrey S., Burmej H., Abdad M. Y., Northover A., et al. . (2017). Morphological and molecular description of Ixodes woyliei n. sp.(Ixodidae) with consideration for co-extinction with its critically endangered marsupial host. Parasit. Vectors 10:70. 10.1186/s13071-017-1997-8 - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types