Molecular Detection of Rickettsia felis in Dermacentor albipictus from Mississippi

ORCID

Goddard: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2617-7141; Robbins: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2443-5271

MSU Affiliation

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences; Department of Agricultural Science and Plant Protection

Creation Date

2026-09-30

Abstract

Dermacentor albipictus (Packard), the winter tick, is a one-host tick often found in high numbers on horses, moose, elk, and deer in the northern United States and parts of Canada. In Mississippi, there have been very few collections of D. albipictus. Herein we report the collection and molecular screening of 5 male specimens and 3 nymphs of the winter tick for rickettsial organisms. Broad PCR screening using a PanRickettsia TaqMan PCR assay targeting a portion of the 23 s gene was utilized, and a family-wide Anaplasmataceae SYBR real-time PCR assay was chosen for initial screening of tick eluates. PanRickettsia PCR-positive samples were then amplified using a conventional PCR targeting the citrate synthase (gltA) gene for species identification. One resultant amplicon was 99.75% identical to Rickettsia felis DNA. This is the first report of R. felis in the winter tick, D. albipictus.

Keywords

tick-borne diseases, Dermacentor albipictus, Rickettsia felis, vector-borne bacteria, ecology

Publication Date

9-14-2025

Publication Title

Journal of Medical Entomology

Publisher

Oxford University Press; Entomological Society of America

First Page

1632

Last Page

1634

Rights

© The Author(s) 2025

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Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.1093/jme/tjaf129