Prevalence of Rickettsia species in ticks including identification of unknown species in two regions in Kazakhstan

Background Over 60 years ago clinical patterns resembling tick-borne rickettsioses have been described for the first time in Kazakhstan. Since 1995 the incidence of clinical cases of tick-borne rickettsioses in humans seems to be rising but studies on epidemiological data regarding the occurring etiological agents, tick vector species, prevalence and distribution throughout Kazakhstan are still scarce to date. The aim of the study was molecular investigation of ticks for spotted-fever group rickettsiae in the endemic Kyzylorda region and the so far considered as non-endemic Almaty region. A total of 2341 ticks was collected in the two regions in Kazakhstan and sorted in 501 pools: Ixodes persulcatus (243); Dermacentor marginatus (129); Haemaphysalis punctata (104); Hyalomma asiaticum (17); Dermacentor reticulatus (3); and Rhipicephalus turanicus (5). Pools were tested for Rickettsia spp. using real-time PCR. For positive samples multilocus sequence typing (MLST) was performed.