Life Sciences Commons^™

A Study Of Ticks And Tick-Borne Livestock Pathogens In Pakistan, Shahid Karim, Khemraj Budachetri, Nabanita Mukherjee, Jaclyn Williams, Asma Kausar, Muhammad Jawadul Hassan, Steven W. Adamson, Scot E. Dowd, Dmitry Apanskevich, Abdullah Arijo, Zia Uddin Sindhu, Muhammad Azam Kakar, Raja Muhammad Dilpazir Khan, Shafiq Ullah, Muhammad Sohail Sajid, Abid Ali, Zafar Iqbal

Faculty Publications

Background

As obligate blood-feeding arthropods, ticks transmit pathogens to humans and domestic animals more often than other arthropod vectors. Livestock farming plays a vital role in the rural economy of Pakistan, and tick infestation causes serious problems with it. However, research on tick species diversity and tick-borne pathogens has rarely been conducted in Pakistan. In this study, a systematic investigation of the tick species infesting livestock in different ecological regions of Pakistan was conducted to determine the microbiome and pathobiome diversity in the indigenous ticks.

Methodology/Principal findings A total of 3,866 tick specimens were morphologically identified as 19 different tick …

A Novel Role For Osteopontin In Facilitating West Nile Virus Neuroinvasion, Amber M. Paul

Dissertations

West Nile virus (WNV) is a positive-sensed, single-stranded RNA flavivirus that can cause human neuroinvasive diseases, including encephalitis, meningitis, and flaccid paralysis. The mechanisms by which WNV enters the central nervous system and the host-factors that are involved in WNV-neuroinvasiveness are not completely understood. Osteopontin (OPN), a multifunctional glycoprotein, has been implicated as a bio-marker for a number of neuroinflammatory diseases. In particular, secreted (s)OPN has been implicated to participate in recruitment of polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMN) to sites of its expression, while PMNs have been suggested to act as WNV reservoirs. Therefore, sOPN recruitment of PMNs may contribute to neuroinvasive …

Study Of Rickettsia Parkeri Colonization And Proliferation In The Tick Host Amblyomma Maculatum (Acari: Ixodidae), Khemraj Budachetri

Dissertations

Amblyomma maculatum (Gulf coast tick) ticks are prevalent across the Atlantic to Gulf Coast region of United States. These ticks are recognized vectors of Rickettsia parkeri, a spotted fever group of Rickettsia (SFGR) known to cause American boutonneuse fever associated with fever and eschar rashes localized to the site of bites. We hypothesized that Rickettsia parkeri colonization and proliferation in the tick vector involve pathogen-symbiont dynamics and tick-pathogen interactions, which influence rickettsial transmission to the victims after tick bites. The rickettsial infection is maintained across the tick life cycle for many generations due to transovarial and transstadial transmission of …