Detection of Rickettsia lusitaniae Among Ornithodoros sawaii Soft Ticks Collected From Japanese Murrelet Seabird Nest Material From Gugul Island, Republic of Korea

Abstract In a follow-up to the investigations of soft ticks identified from seabird nest soil and litter collected coastal islands Republic Korea (ROK), Ornithodoros sawaii capensis were assessed for presence identification rickettsiae. Ticks samples 50–100 g nests individually by morphological techniques, species confirmed sequencing mt-rrs gene. Subsequently, tick DNA preparations screened rickettsiae using genus-specific nested PCR (nPCR) assay targeting 17 kDa antigen The amplicons two additional nPCR assays gltA ompB gene fragments sequenced used identify A total 134 belonging species, O. Kitaoka & Suzuki 1973 (n = 125) Neumann 1901 9), collected. Rickettsia lusitaniae was detected among 11, 8.8%) Japanese murrelet (Synthliboramphus wumizusume Temminck 1836) at Gugul Island along western area ROK. This study first time R. associated with migratory in