Genotyping of Coxiella burnetii in Ticks Collected from Wildlife in Greece

Author(s): Dimitrios Vourvidis, Sofia Makka, Vahid Baniasadi, Sokratis Perdikaris, Mary Emmanouil, Georgia Tzouganatou, Beatriz Martinez-Gonzalez, Kofidou Evangelia, Markakis Grigorios, Emmanouil Papadogiannakis, Anastasia Komnenou, Emmanouil Angelakis

Coxiella burnetii is a zoonotic pathogen that causes Q fever in humans and coxiellosis in animals. Ticks are known to be the main vector for Coxiella transmission among wildlife and domestic animals, and they can also act as potential reser-voirs. This study aimed to screen ticks collected from wildlife in Greece for the presence of C. burnetii and to evaluate its genetic diversity using the multi-spacer sequence typing (MST) method. A total of 177 live-feeding ticks were col-lected from 42 different wildlife animals, including birds, reptiles, and mammals. Molecular identification of the tick species was conducted through amplification and sequencing of 12S rDNA gene, revealing that the majority of the ticks belonged to Hyalomma aegyptium species (n=141, 80%). All ticks were tested by qPCR for the IS1111 gene of C. bur-netii and 42 (23.7%) were found positive. Among these, 40 (95%) were H. aegyptium, with single cases detected in Haemaphysalis erinacei and Rhipicephalus secundus. Furthermore, MST genotyping of C. burnetii was performed on IS1111-positive ticks with higher DNA concentrations. Of these, four H. aegyptium ticks were successfully amplified and sequenced, and C. burnetii was identified as belonging to MST7 genotype group. Overall, this study provides the first documented evidence of C. burnetii detection in ticks collected from wildlife in Greece.