GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION AND MOLECULAR CHARACTERIZATION OF Microsporidia spp. IN TICK POPULATION IN ABEOKUTA, OGUN STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

ABSTRACT Microsporidia are endosymbionts targeted as potential microorganisms for biological control of arthropod vectors. However, not much is known about their distribution in tick population in Ogun State. The present study therefore, mapped the geographical distribution and molecular characterization of Microsporidia spp. in ticks’ populations. Ticks samples were collected from 68 cattle from Isoro Aje Gbonagun, Asero, and Lafenwa abattoir respectively, and 13 dogs from the State Veterinary Hospital, Ita-Eko, all in Ogun State, Nigeria. The ticks were morphologically identified and characterized into sex and developmental stage. DNA extracted from the ticks was subjected to PCR amplification using the universal Microsporidia small subunit ribosomal ribonucleic acid (ssU RNA) primers. Data were entered using Microsoft excel, cleaned of error and analysis were executed using SPSS version 22. A total of 875 ticks were collected, 668 from cattle, 207 from dog respectively. Ticks collected from cattle were Amblyomma variegatum 71(10.63%), Rhipicephalus decoloratus 58(8.68%), Rhipicephalus microplus 214(32.04%), Rhipicephalus annulatus322(48.20%) and Hyalomma marginatum 30(0.44%), while ticks collected from dog were Rhipicephalus sanguineus 47(22.7%), Amblyomma variegatum 30(14.49%), Heamaphysalisleachi 12(5.80%), Hyalomma marginatum (14.49%), Heamaphysalis punctata 28(13.53%) and Rhipicephalus microplus 60(28.99%). There is a significant difference (p = 0.01) in tick distribution between the sampling location; Lafenwa abattoir had the highest number of ticks (412) while the lowest number of ticks (86 ticks) were sampled fromIsoro Aje Gbonagun abattoir. Microsporidia spores were isolated from 277(31.66%) tick samples with 228 (82.31%) isolated from cattle and 49 (17.67%) from dogs. Microsporidia infection in tick species were Amblyomma variegatum 15(6.58%) Rhipicephalus decoloratus 14(6.14%), Rhipicephalus microplus 118(51.75%), Rhipicephalus annulatus 81(35.53%), Amblyomma variegatum 15(30.61%), Heamaphysalis leachi 5(10.20%), Hyalomma marginatum 9(18.37%), Heamaphysalis punctata 12(24.49%) and Rhipicephalus microplus 8(16.33). Microsporidia infection in tick species was not significantly different between cattle (p = 0.184) and between dog (p = 0.366). Molecular analysis of 60(21.67%) microscopically positive Microsporidia samples randomly selected across the study locations showed that 7(11.67%) was positive for Microsporidia DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid), at a base pair of 100bp, 250bp, 750bp, 500bp, 1000bp respectively. This study shows that Microsporidia endosymbionts are present among the tick populations in Abeokuta, Ogun state.