Coxiella burnetii is widespread in ticks (Ixodidae) in the Xinjiang areas of China

BACKGROUND: The gram-negative Coxiella burnetii bacterium is the pathogen that causes Q fever. The bacterium is transmitted to animals via ticks, and manure, air, dead infected animals, etc. and can cause infection in domestic animals, wild animals, and humans. Xinjiang, the provincial-level administrative region with the largest land area in China, has many endemic tick species. The infection rate of C. burnetii in ticks in Xinjiang border areas has not been studied in detail. RESULTS: For the current study, 1507 ticks were collected from livestock at 22 sampling sites in ten border regions of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous region from 2018 to 2019. C. burnetii was detected in 205/348 (58.91%) Dermacentor nuttalli; in 110/146 (75.34%) D. pavlovskyi; in 66/80 (82.50%) D. silvarum; in 15/32 (46.90%) D. niveus; in 28/132 (21.21%) Hyalomma rufipes; in 24/25 (96.00%) H. anatolicum; in 219/312 (70.19%) H. asiaticum; in 252/338 (74.56%) Rhipicephalus sanguineus; and in 54/92 (58.70%) Haemaphysalis punctata. Among these samples, C. burnetii was detected in D. pavlovskyi for the first time. The infection rate of Rhipicephalus was 74.56% (252/338), which was the highest among the four tick genera sampled, whereas the infection rate of H. anatolicum was 96% (24/25), which was the highest among the nine tick species sampled. A sequence analysis indicated that 63 16S rRNA sequences could be found in four newly established genotypes: MT498683.1 (n = 18), MT498684.1 (n = 33), MT498685.1 (n = 6), and MT498686.1 (n = 6). CONCLUSIONS: This study indicates that MT498684.1 might represent the main C. burnetii genotype in the ticks in Xinjiang because it was detected in eight of the tick species studied. The high infection rate of C. burnetii detected in the ticks found in domestic animals may indicate a high likelihood of Q fever infection in both domestic animals and humans.