Colorado State University

Background Tick-borne Phleboviruses TBPVs comprise human and animal viruses that can cause a variety of clinical syndromes ranging from self-limiting febrile illness to fatal haemorrhagic fevers Objective Detect Phlebovirus in ticks collected from domestic animals in C rdoba Colombia Methods We collected 2 365 ticks from domestic animals in three municipalities of the Department of Cordoba Colombia in 2016 Ticks were identified and pooled by species for RNA extraction A nested real-time PCR with specific primers for Phlebovirus and a probe for Heartland virus HRTV were performed Also a conventional nested PCR with the same specific primers was used to detect other Phleboviruses with positive reactions indicated by an amplified cDNA fragment of approximately 244 bp determined by gel electrophoresis These bands were gel-purified and sequenced by the Sanger method Results Using real-time RT-PCR no positive results for HRTV were found However using conventional nested PCR 2 2 5 229 pools yielded a product of 244 bp One positive sample was detected in a pool of Dermacentor nitens ticks collected from a horse and the four remaining positive pools were from Rhipicephalus microplus collected from cattle The five positive nucleotide sequences were identical to each other with identities of 93 to 96 compared to a section of the L-segment of Lihan Tick virus a Phlebovirus originally detected in R microplus ticks in China The strongest identity 96 -99 was with Lihan Tick virus detected in R microplus ticks from Brazil Conclusions This is the first report of viral detection in ticks in Colombia We detected a Colombian strain of Lihan Tick virus We recommend investigating possible disease associations with this tickborne virus in Colombia

Colorado State University

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First report of Lihan Tick virus (Phlebovirus, Phenuiviridae) in ticks, Colombia