Emerging spotted fever group rickettsiae in ticks, northwestern China

We report Rickettsia conorii subsp. indica, Candidatus R. barbariae and R. massiliae in Rhipicephalus turanicus from sheep around the Taklamakan desert, northwestern China. The topology of the phylogenetic trees produced from the maximum likelihood (ML) analyses of the ompA-gltA-rrs-geneD-ompB concatenated sequence data was very similar to that of the neighbor joining (NJ) tree, and with total support of 69%-100% bootstrap values for the inclusion of the rickettsiae in Rh. turanicus within the clade that contained R. conorii subsp. indica; Candidatus R. barbariae and Rickettsia sp. Tselentii; R. massiliae str. AZT80; and R. massiliae MTU5, respectively. Studies suggest that the co-existence of these spotted fever group rickettsiae is a threat to public health in China. Work is important in exploring novel and emerging pathogens.