The bacterial microbiome of Rhipicephalus sanguineus ticks in the Mnisi community, South Africa

Rhipicephalus sanguineus, the brown dog tick, is almost exclusively a parasite of domestic dogs and is well adapted to living with its canine host in kennels or human dwellings , where it may also bite people in the safety of their own homes. It is known to transmit various tick-borne diseases. In the Mnisi community, an area of high rural poverty in Bushbuckridge, Mpumalanga, South Africa, R. sanguineus is one of the most prevalent ticks found on dogs. The community lies at the human/livestock/wildlife interface where humans are at risk of infection with various tick-borne zoonotic diseases.Includes bibliographical referencesPoster presented at the 27th Conference of the World Association for the Advancement of Veterinary Parasitology (WAAVP2019)Funding agencies for research support: South African National Research Foundation (grants 92739, 110448 and 109350 to Marinda Oosthuizen), the University of Pretoria Institutional Research Theme on Animal and Zoonotic Diseases grant (awarded to Marinda Oosthuizen), and the Belgian Directorate General for Development Co-operation Framework. We thank the World Association for the Advancement of Veterinary Parasitology African Foundation (WAAVP AF) travel grant awarded to Rebecca Ackermann. The technical assistance of Derek Pouchnik and Mark Wildung of the Genomics Core at Washington State University is appreciated. The authors are grateful to Charles Byaruhanga for assistance with the statistical analyses and Estelle Mayhew for the graphic design.ab202