Assessment of prevalence and distribution of spotted fever group rickettsiae in Manitoba, Canada, in the American dog tick, Dermacentor variabilis (Acari: Ixodidae).
Little is known about the distribution and prevalence of the spotted fever group rickettsiae in Canada. We conducted active surveillance for tick-associated rickettsiae in 10 localities in Manitoba. A total of 1044 adult American dog ticks, Dermacentor variabilis (Acari: Ixodidae), were collected and screened for spotted fever group rickettsiae. Rickettsia montanensis was the only species of rickettsia detected. The mean prevalence of infection was 9.8% (range, 0.00-21.74% among localities). The proportion of infected male and female ticks was not significantly different; however, tick populations near the northern limit of D. variabilis distribution in Manitoba had a lower prevalence of infection compared to tick populations from more southern localities in the province.
['Yunik|Matthew E M|ME|', 'Galloway|Terry D|TD|', 'Lindsay|L Robbin|LR|']
D000818:Animals D003870:Dermacentor D004283:Dog Diseases D004285:Dogs D005260:Female D008297:Male D008350:Manitoba D015995:Prevalence D012281:Rickettsia D012282:Rickettsia Infections D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA D014481:United States
Distribution Spotted fever group rickettsiae Drag sampling Infection prevalence Ricketttsia montanensis