Abstract：
Rickettsiales are obligate intracellular bacteria that need vertebrates and arthropods to maintain their life cycles. Some species of the genera Anaplasma, Ehrlichia, and Rickettsia are transmitted by ticks to both animals and humans and can cause mild to severe and even fatal cases. In the Americas, there is substantial data on rickettsial agents, encompassing both clinical cases and the detection of these agents in ticks, but in Ecuador, the information about them remains poorly understood. Therefore, the objective of this study was to detect molecularly rickettsial agents in Amblyomma maculatum ticks in both parasitic and free-living phases collected from domestic animals and pasture in five localities across three coastal provinces of Ecuador. Rickettsia parkeri, Candidatus Rickettsia andeanae, and Ehrlichia sp. were recorded in A. maculatum for the first time in Ecuador. These records were made in a region where antibodies to the Spotted Fever Rickettsia Group were detected in humans. Additional studies are needed to characterize Ehrlichia sp. at a specific level. Furthermore, recognizing the specific Rickettsiales species circulating in the ticks and the hosts within a region is crucial for assessing potential contact risks.
摘要：
立克次体是专性细胞内细菌，需要脊椎动物和节肢动物来维持其生命周期。无性体属的一些物种，埃里希亚,立克次体通过蜱传播给动物和人类，并可能导致轻度到重度甚至致命的病例。在美洲,关于立克次体病原体的大量数据，包括临床病例和在蜱中检测到这些药物，但在厄瓜多尔,关于他们的信息仍然知之甚少。因此,这项研究的目的是检测从厄瓜多尔三个沿海省份的五个地区的家畜和牧场中收集的寄生和自由生活阶段的黑斑虱中的分子立克次体药物。立克次体Parkeri,念珠菌立克次体，和埃里希亚sp.在厄瓜多尔首次在A.maculatum中记录。这些记录是在人类中检测到斑点热立克次体组抗体的区域中进行的。需要进一步的研究来表征埃里希菌属。在一个特定的水平。此外，识别在壁虱和区域内宿主中循环的特定Rickettsiales物种对于评估潜在的接触风险至关重要。
