A Pilot Study on the Microbiome of Tick Stages Infected and Non-Infected with .

Variation in tick microbiota may affect pathogen acquisition and transmission but for many vector species, including , components and determinants of the microbiome are unidentified. This pilot study aimed to determine baseline microbial community within nymphs infected- and non-infected with from the environment, and within adult ticks infected- and non-infected with collected from cattle sampled from two locations in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. Adult A. hebraeum ticks (N = 13) and A. hebraeum nymph (N = 15) preliminary screened for R. africae were randomly selected and subjected to Illumina sequencing targeting the v3-v4 hypervariable regions of the 16S rRNA gene. No significant difference in microbial community composition, as well as rarefied OTU richness and diversity were detected between adults and nymphs. Nymphs showed a higher richness of bacterial taxa indicating blood-feeding could have resulted in loss of microbial diversity during the moulting stage from nymph to adult. Core OTUs that were in at least 50% of nymphs and adults negative and positive for at 1% minimum relative abundance were , and UCG-005 with a single genus occurring only in nymphs negative for . spp. was present in only four nymphal ticks positive for . Interestingly,   was found in one nymph and one adult, indicating the first ever detection of the species in . Furthermore, harboured a -like endosymbiont, which should be investigated further as may affect the viability and transmission of other organisms.