several bacteria associated with fleas Metagenome. fleas

Fleas are one of the most important ectoparasites on mammals and birds that have coevolution with their specific hosts over the years. They can be very harassing pest of humans due to their painful bites causing a severe dermatitis and allergic reactions. Due to the lack of information about fleas in Iran, in this study, fleas associated with rodents are first collected in three plague endemic foci in the East Azerbaijan (Sarab), West Azerbaijan (Seyed-Abad), and Hamedan (Akinlou) provinces and in a nonendemic focus of Tehran. The presence of bacterial symbionts and pathogens were detected through high-performance sequencing (NGS) techniques. The results of this study may be useful in providing solutions to control flea-borne diseases.