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On August 14th, 2018, a Beijing resident living in Xicheng District found a female H. longicornis tick attached to the skin at the front of his upper shin. On examination, the patient was afebrile and appeared well. The species of the tick was identified through morphological characteristics and phylogenetic analysis based on cytochrome C oxidase subunit I. This H. longicornis tick was screened for tick-borne pathogens such as viruses, bacteria and parasites. RNA pathogens were screened by PCR and sequencing, while DNA pathogens were screened by metagenomic analyses. It was found that the tick was positive for the DNA sequences of zoonotic and animal pathogens such as A. phagocytophilum, Ehrlichia minasensis and C. burnetii. Considering the good health condition of the patient, we hypothesized that the pathogens originated from the tick specimen itself rather than host blood meal. For the first time, our study reveals the possible risk of transmission of tick-borne pathogens to human beings through tick bit in downtown Beijing. Further research is needed to screen for tick-borne pathogens among unfed ticks collected from central Beijing.

Advances in molecular testing and microfluidic technologies have opened new avenues for rapid detection of animal viruses. We used a centrifugal microfluidic disk (CMFD) to detect 6 important swine viruses, including foot-and-mouth disease virus, classical swine fever virus, porcine reproductive and respiratory swine virus–North American genotype, porcine circovirus 2, pseudorabies virus, and porcine parvovirus. Through integrating the loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) method and microfluidic chip technology, the CMFD could be successfully performed at 62℃ in 60 min. The detection limit of the CMFD was 3.2 × 102 copies per reaction, close to the sensitivity of tube-type LAMP turbidity methods (1 × 102 copies per reaction). In addition, the CMFD was highly specific in detecting the targeted viruses with no cross-reaction with other viruses, including porcine epidemic diarrhea virus, transmissible gastroenteritis virus, and porcine rotavirus. The coincidence rate of CMFD and conventional PCR was ~94%; the CMFD was more sensitive than conventional PCR for detecting mixed viral infections. The positive detection rate of 6 viruses in clinical samples by CMFD was 44.0% (102 of 232), whereas PCR was 40.1% (93 of 232). Thirty-six clinical samples were determined to be coinfected with 2 or more viruses. CMFD can be used for rapid, sensitive, and accurate detection of 6 swine viruses, offering a reliable assay for monitoring these pathogens, especially for detecting viruses in widespread mixed-infection clinical samples.

Argasid ticks (Acari: Argasidae) carry and transmit a variety of pathogens of animals and humans, including viruses, bacteria and parasites. There are several studies reporting ixodid ticks (Acari: Ixodidae) and associated tick-borne pathogens in Xinjiang, China. However, little is known about the argasid ticks and argasid tick-associated pathogens in this area. In this study, a total of 3829 adult argasid ticks infesting livestock were collected at 12 sampling sites of 10 counties in the Peripheral Oases, which carry 90% of the livestock and humans population, around the Tarim Basin (southern Xinjiang) from 2013 to 2016. Tick specimens were identified to two species from different genera by morphology and sequences of mitochondrial 16S rRNA and 12S rRNA were derived to confirm the species designation. The results showed that the dominant argasid ticks infesting livestock in southern Xinjiang were Ornithodoros lahorensis (87.86%, 3364/3829). Ornithodoros lahorensis was distributed widely and were collected from 10 counties of southern Xinjiang. Argas japonicus was collected from Xinjiang for the first time. In addition, we screened these ticks for tick-associated pathogens and showed the presence of DNA sequences of Rickettsia spp. of Spotted fever group and Anaplasma spp. in the argasid ticks. This finding suggests the potential role for Argas japonicus as a vector of pathogens to livestock and humans.

Peste des petits ruminants virus (PPRV) is an important pathogen that seriously influences the productivity of small ruminants worldwide. Although PPRV is known to induce apoptosis in infected cells, the interaction between PPRV and permissive cells requires further elucidation. Here, we provide the first evidence that PPRV infection triggered autophagy in Vero cells based on the appearance of abundant double- and single-membrane vesicles, the accumulation of LC3 fluorescent puncta, the enhancement of LC3-I/-II conversion, and autophagic flux. We further demonstrated that induction of autophagy with rapamycin significantly increased PPRV progeny yield and nucleocapsid (N) protein expression, while inhibition of autophagy with siRNA targeting ATG7 resulted in diametrically opposite results. Our data indicate that PPRV exploits the autophagy machinery to facilitate its own replication in host cells, thus the production efficiency of live attenuated PPRV vaccines may be improved by targeting the autophagic pathway.

Background The 5’ region of cytochrome oxidase I (COI) is the standard marker for DNA barcoding. However, COI has proved to be of limited use in identifying some species, and for some taxa, the coding sequence is not efficiently amplified by PCR. These deficiencies lead to uncertainty as to whether COI is the most suitable barcoding fragment for species identification of ticks. Methods In this study, we directly compared the relative effectiveness of COI, 16S ribosomal DNA (rDNA), nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) and 12S rDNA for tick species identification. A total of 307 sequences from 84 specimens representing eight tick species were acquired by PCR. Besides the 1,834 published sequences of 189 tick species from GenBank and the Barcode of Life Database, 430 unpublished sequences representing 59 tick species were also successfully screened by Bayesian analyses. Thereafter, the performance of the four DNA markers to identify tick species was evaluated by identification success rates given by these markers using nearest neighbour (NN), BLASTn, liberal tree-based or liberal tree-based (+threshold) methods. Results Genetic divergence analyses showed that the intra-specific divergence of each marker was much lower than the inter-specific divergence. Our results indicated that the rates of correct sequence identification for all four markers (COI, 16S rDNA, ITS2, 12S rDNA) were very high (> 96%) when using the NN methodology. We also found that COI was not significantly better than the other markers in terms of its rate of correct sequence identification. Overall, BLASTn and NN methods produced higher rates of correct species identification than that produced by the liberal tree-based methods (+threshold or otherwise). Conclusions As the standard DNA barcode, COI should be the first choice for tick species identification, while 16S rDNA, ITS2, and 12S rDNA could be used when COI does not produce reliable results. Besides, NN and BLASTn are efficient methods for species identification of ticks.

Perkinsus is a genus of unicellular protozoan parasite responsible for mass mortality of several commercially valuable mollusks. Surveillance and inspection of its epidemiology in the field calls for convenient and rapid detection methods. Here, a loop-mediated isothermal amplifi- cation (LAMP) assay was developed to detect the presence of Perkinsus spp. in mollusks. Specific LAMP primers were designed targeting the conserved internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS-2) region of the rRNA gene of Perkinsus spp. Using ITS-2 recombinant plasmid as a template, we optimized the LAMP reaction system and conditions and then evaluated the analytical sensitivity and speci- ficity of the assay. The LAMP assay was validated using clam samples collected from coastal areas in eastern China and oysters imported to China and compared with the traditional Ray's fluid thio- glycollate culture method (RFTM). Our results showed that the LAMP detection method for Perkinsus was successful. The detection limit was 10 copies of plasmid DNA. Compared to the RFTM assay, the LAMP detection method was more sensitive (56 versus 52 positive out of 60 sam- ples). P. olseni and P. marinus from infected hosts were successfully detected by this method. The LAMP method is rapid, sensitive, and specific for Perkinsus spp. detection, and could be used to screen for perkinsosis both on farms and at ports.