Novel Viruses Found in Antricola Ticks Collected in Bat Caves in the Western Amazonia of Brazil.

ABSTRACT: In this study, we describe the viral composition of adult Antricoladelacruzi ticks collected in a hot bat cave in the state of Rondônia, Western Amazonia, Brazil. A.delacruzi ticks, are special, compared to many other ticks, in that they feed on both bats (larval blood feeding) and bat guano (nymphal and adult feeding) instead of feeding exclusively on vertebrate hosts (blood feeding). Considering this unique life-cycle it is potentially possible that these ticks can pick up/be infected by viruses not only present in the blood of viremic bats but also by virus shed through the bat guano. The viral metagenomic investigation of adult ticks showed that single-stranded negative-sense RNA viruses were the dominant group of viruses identified in the investigated ticks. Out of these, members of t

SUBMITTER: Blomstrom AL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7019218 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature