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10-Minute Presentation

Medical, Urban, and Veterinary Entomology

10-min: MUVE, Tick Talks

Defining the transmission risk profile of three Ehrlichia species using statewide surveillance of tick populations in South Carolina

Tuesday, November 12, 2024
4:48 PM – 5:00 PM MST
Location: Phoenix Convention Center, 221 C, PCC
Oral Presentation
The prevalence of tick-borne diseases and pathogen transmission has steadily increased over the past two decades in the United States of America. Human ehrlichiosis is a serious, potentially life-threatening public health concern. While considered rare compared to other tick-borne diseases, the annual number of documented cases is substantially underreported. The state of South Carolina is geographically surrounded by high burden-Ehrlichia states with environmental landscapes; however, until recently, vector surveillance had been limited. Here we present vector and pathogen surveillance data from four years of the South Carolina state-wide tick surveillance initiative, which included questing ticks collected from 37 state-parks and 9 animal shelters. Additionally, Ehrlichia species were sequenced using targeted 16S pan Ehrlichia regions on an Illumina NextSeq 1000 machine and phylogenetic trees were generated using BLAST and Beast2 programs.

From four years of state-wide tick surveillance, 4,165 ticks were available for analysis. Lone star ticks comprised 69%, with a total of six different tick species collected. Ehrlichia testing among all available vector species was conducted, revealing Panola Mountain Ehrlichia as the most prevalent, followed by E. ewingii, and E. chaffensis. Additionally, co-infections with Rickettsia were noted. Geospatial clustering was noted in one location along the coast, suggesting hyperfoci of transmission. Ongoing sequencing efforts aim to elucidate the impact of secondary vectors and co-infections on Ehrlichia pathogen evolution and sequence diversity compared to other native Ehrlichia strains.