bacterial and protozoal tick-borne organisms of varying pathogenicity Targeted loci environmental

Vector-borne diseases are a major source of illness for both humans and the animals with which they associate. It is becoming apparent that the etiology of vector-borne diseases is more complex than previously realized, and numerous microbes transmitted by vector arthropods previously thought benign are proving to cause disease. A number of studies indicate that ticks may harbor more than one tick-borne organism (TBO) and that such co-infections are not uncommon. We developed a protocol to identify in TBOs North American ticks using the Fluidigm Access Array System paired with Illumina high-throughput sequencing. A custom database of target sequences was created as well as a custom analysis protocol to identify TBOs at the species level. This is a high-throughput method utilizing DNA and custom as well as 16S gene targets and surpasses the benefits of both RLB and real-time qPCR protocols for the detection of multiple TBOs in multiple tick samples without the need for additional confirmation steps.