A next generation sequencing assay combining Ixodes species identification with pathogen detection to support tick surveillance efforts in the United States

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Ticks Tick Borne Dis
• Personal Author:
  Osikowicz, Lynn M. ; Maes, Sarah E. ; Eisen, Rebecca J. ; Hojgaard, Andrias
• Description:
  The burden of tick-borne diseases continues to increase in the United States. Tick surveillance has been implemented to monitor changes in the distribution and prevalence of human disease-causing pathogens in ticks that frequently bite humans. Such efforts require accurate identification of ticks to species and highly sensitive and specific assays that can detect and differentiate pathogens from genetically similar microbes in ticks that have not been demonstrated to be pathogenic in humans. We describe a modification to a next generation sequencing pathogen detection assay that includes a target that accurately identifies Ixodes ticks to species. We show that the replacement of internal control primers used to ensure assay performance with primers that also act as an internal control and can additionally differentiate tick species, retains high sensitivity and specificity, improves efficiency, and reduces costs by eliminating the need to run separate assays to screen for pathogens and for tick identification.
• Subjects:
  Animals Epidemiological Monitoring High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing Ixodes Sensitivity And Specificity Tick-Borne Diseases United States
• Keywords:
  Anaplasma Babesia Borrelia Ehrlichia Ixodes Scapularis
• Source:
  Ticks Tick Borne Dis. 15(4):102343
• Pubmed ID:
  38615554
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC11102312
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  CC999999/ImCDC/Intramural CDC HHSUnited States/
• Volume:
  15
• Issue:
  4
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:ffd1fcaf4257490c244bd267dea038e084997f59a4374212f601aac1da414f57
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/156914/cdc_156914_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 99.37 KB ]