Microbiome of tick species

Tick play a major role next to mosquitoes in transmitting important vector borne diseases to human. Increasing incidences of tick borne infections around the globe is becoming a serious public health concern. Emergence of unreported tick borne infections in newer areas warrants continuous surveillance of tick vectors and associated diseases. In india, a total of 106 tick species have been reported which causes many tick borne infections like Indian tick typhus, Kyasanur Forest Disease (KFD), Crimean Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF).The dangerous KFD remains a serious public health threat as it has been recently found spreading to newer foci in the country. Though the tick, Haemaphysalis spinigera had been incriminated as the vector of KFDV, microbiome diversity of the vector is not been studied in detail. This study will prove greater insights in understanding the vector interactions with its commensal, pathogens and symbionts in order to develop novel KFD control strategies. The screening will also unearth the circulating known and unknown pathogens in the prevalent tick species in the potential hotspots in the Western Ghats and forest fringe areas. To conduct effective surveillance on ticks and tick borne infections in the country, it is inevitable to exploit modern surveillance tools for rapid detection of emerging and re-emerging pathogens. The present study documents the evidences of successful application of Oxford Nanopore sequencer as an efficient tool for rapid detection of public health important pathogens in H. spinigera ticks that are collected from Western Ghats region in Tamil Nadu, India.The communication discusses the rapid metagenomic profiling using Oxford nanopore sequencer in detection of potential pathogens and its impact in predicting the potential risk of transmission of public health important pathogens in the country.