The Bacterial Community in Questing Ticks From Khao Yai National Park in Thailand.

Ticks are known vectors for a variety of pathogens including bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites. In this study, bacterial communities were investigated in active life stages of three tick genera (, and ) collected from Khao Yai National Park in Thailand. Four hundred and thirty-three questing ticks were selected for pathogen detection individually using real-time PCR assays, and 58 of these were subjected to further metagenomics analysis. A total of 62 ticks were found to be infected with pathogenic bacteria, for a 14.3% prevalence rate, with spp. exhibiting the highest infection rate (20.5%), followed by spp. (14.5%) and spp. (8.6%). spp. were the most prevalent bacteria (7.9%) found, followed by spp. (3.2%), and spp. and spp. each with a similar prevalence of 1.6%. Co-infection between pathogenic bacteria was only detected in three females, and all co-infections were between spp. and Anaplasmataceae ( spp. or spp.), accounting for 4.6% of infected ticks or 0.7% of all examined questing ticks. The prevalence of the -like endosymbiont was also investigated. Of ticks tested, 65.8% were positive for the -like endosymbiont, with the highest infection rate in nymphs (86.7%), followed by females (83.4%). Among tick genera, exhibited the highest prevalence of infection with the -like endosymbiont. Ticks harboring the -like endosymbiont were more likely to be infected with spp. or spp. than those without, with statistical significance for spp. infection in particular (-values = 0.003 and 0.917 for spp. and spp., respectively). Profiling the bacterial community in ticks using metagenomics revealed distinct, predominant bacterial taxa in tick genera. Alpha and beta diversities analyses showed that the bacterial community diversity and composition in spp. was significantly different from spp. However, when examining bacterial diversity among tick life stages (larva, nymph, and adult) in spp., no significant difference among life stages was detected. These results provide valuable information on the bacterial community composition and co-infection rates in questing ticks in Thailand, with implications for animal and human health.