Rickettsia felis and Other Rickettsia Species in Chigger Mites Collected from Wild Rodents in North Carolina, USA.

ABSTRACT: Chiggers are vectors of rickettsial pathogenic bacteria, Orientia spp., that cause the human disease, scrub typhus, in the Asian-Pacific area and northern Australia (known as the Tsutsugamushi Triangle). More recently, reports of scrub typhus in Africa, southern Chile, and the Middle East have reshaped our understanding of the epidemiology of this disease, indicating it has a broad geographical distribution. Despite the growing number of studies and discoveries of chigger-borne human disease outside of the Tsutsugamushi Triangle, rickettsial pathogens in chigger mites in the US are still undetermined. The aim of our study was to investigate possible Rickettsia DNA in chiggers collected from rodents in North Carolina, USA. Of 46 chiggers tested, 47.8% tested positive for ampli

SUBMITTER: Ponnusamy L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9324336 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature