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The presence of ticks inside human constructions was evaluated in two localities from Colon province (Charco La Piedra and Espinar) and one from Panama province (Ancon, City of Panama). In two of houses, eight people from Charco La Piedra and one from Ancón reported “insect bites,” which produced blisters for several weeks. The investigation resulted in the collection of argasid ticks, which were identified by morphology and sequencing the 16s ribosomal RNA gene, and later evaluated for the presence of relapsing fever BorreliaDNA. All ticks were identified as Ornithodoros puertoricensis. While spirochetal DNA was not detected by PCR in the ticks, our report highlights the potential for relapsing fever borreliosis in rural and urban localities in Panama.

This paper presents new data about Rickettsiaspecies detected in ticks collected from wild animals, using 16S rRNA, gltAand ompA. RickettsiaDNA was found in 66 of 101 ticks. Using EZ BioCloud libraries were produced reads that identified Rickettsia aeschlimannii, and Illumina BaseSpace produced reads of Rickettsia rickettsiigroup, Rickettsia belliigroup, and unclassified Rickettsia. Using gltAand ompAgene-specific primers, R. aeschlimanniicould not be confirmed, but detection of Rickettsia amblyommatiswas achieved in Amblyomma auricularium, Amblyomma geayi, Amblyomma mixtum, and Amblyomma pacae; R. belliifrom Amblyomma dissimile, “CandidatusRickettsia colombianensi” from A. dissimile, Rickettsiaspp. closely related to R. raoultiifrom A. geayi, Rickettsia tamuraefrom A. dissimile, and Rickettsiaendosymbionts of Ixodesfrom Ixodes affinis. There were no databases available specifically for 16S rRNA of Neotropical Rickettsia,highlighting the need to use species primers over only 16S rRNA primers to achieve more accurate interpretations and identifications. These findings increase the number of Rickettsiaspecies detected in Panama and highlight the need to establish isolates to further characterize the nature of Rickettsiain the area.