Bunyaviruses are common in male and female Ixodes scapularis ticks in central Pennsylvania.
The blacklegged tick Ixodes scapularis is widely distributed in the United States and transmits multiple pathogens to humans, wildlife and domestic animals. Recently, several novel viruses in the family Bunyaviridae (South Bay virus (SBV) and Blacklegged tick phlebovirus (BTPV)) were identified infecting female I. scapularis ticks collected in New York State. We used metagenomic sequencing to investigate the distribution of viruses infecting male and female I. scapularis ticks collected in Centre County, Pennsylvania. We identified both SBV and BTPV in both male and female ticks from all collection locations. The role of male I. scapularis in pathogen epidemiology has been overlooked because they rarely bite and are not considered important pathogen vectors. However, males may act as reservoirs for pathogens that can then be transmitted to females during mating. Our data highlight the importance of examining all potential avenues of pathogen maintenance and transmission throughout the vector-pathogen life cycle in order to understand the epidemiology of tick-borne pathogens.
Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, United States.|Department of Entomology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, United States.
Joyce M
JM
Sakamoto
Molecular Virology, Blood Systems Research Institute, San Francisco, California, United States.|Division of Viral Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, United States.
Terry Fei Fan
0000-0002-4815-8697
TFF
Ng
Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, United States.|Department of Virology, Institute Pasteur, Paris, France.|The Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, United States.
Yasutsugu
Y
Suzuki
Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, United States.|Department of Entomology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, United States.|The Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, United States.|Department of Biology, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM, United States.
Hitoshi
H
Tsujimoto
Department of Laboratory Medicine, Blood Systems Research Institute, San Francisco, CA, USA.|University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA.
Xutao
X
Deng
Department of Laboratory Medicine, Blood Systems Research Institute, San Francisco, CA, USA.|University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA.
Eric
E
Delwart
Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, United States.|Department of Entomology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, United States.|The Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, United States.
Jason L
JL
Rasgon
Metagenomics; Tick; Vector-borne pathogen; Virus