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
. 2021 Jul 16;58(4):1525-1535.
doi: 10.1093/jme/tjaa269.

Discovery and Surveillance of Tick-Borne Pathogens

Rafal Tokarz  1   2 , W Ian Lipkin  1
Affiliations

Discovery and Surveillance of Tick-Borne Pathogens

Rafal Tokarz et al. J Med Entomol. .

Abstract

Within the past 30 yr molecular assays have largely supplanted classical methods for detection of tick-borne agents. Enhancements provided by molecular assays, including speed, throughput, sensitivity, and specificity, have resulted in a rapid increase in the number of newly characterized tick-borne agents. The use of unbiased high throughput sequencing has enabled the prompt identification of new pathogens and the examination of tick microbiomes. These efforts have led to the identification of hundreds of new tick-borne agents in the last decade alone. However, little is currently known about the majority of these agents beyond their phylogenetic classification. Our article outlines the primary methods involved in tick-borne agent discovery and the current status of our understanding of tick-borne agent diversity.

Keywords: microbiome; next-generation sequencing; pathogen discovery.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Ahantarig, A., Trinachartvanit W., Baimai V., and Grubhoffer L.. . 2013. Hard ticks and their bacterial endosymbionts (or would be pathogens). Folia Microbiol. (Praha). 58: 419–428. - PubMed
    1. Aliota, M. T., A. P. Dupuis, 2nd, Wilczek M. P., Peters R. J., Ostfeld R. S., and Kramer L. D.. . 2014. The prevalence of zoonotic tick-borne pathogens in Ixodes scapularis collected in the Hudson Valley, New York State. Vector Borne Zoonotic Dis. 14: 245–250. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Allan, B. F., Goessling L. S., Storch G. A., and Thach R. E.. . 2010. Blood meal analysis to identify reservoir hosts for Amblyomma americanum ticks. Emerg. Infect. Dis. 16: 433–440. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Allen, K. E., Johnson E. M., and Little S. E.. . 2011. Hepatozoon spp infections in the United States. Vet. Clin. North Am. Small Anim. Pract. 41: 1221–1238. - PubMed
    1. Allicock, O. M., Guo C., Uhlemann A. C., Whittier S., Chauhan L. V., Garcia J., Price A., Morse S. S., Mishra N., Briese T., and Lipkin W. I.. . 2018. BacCapSeq: a platform for diagnosis and characterization of bacterial infections. MBio. 9: e02007–02018. - PMC - PubMed

Publication types