Detection and characterization of Coxiella and Rickettsia spp. endosymbionts in R. appendiculatus and microsatellite marker development for H. rufipes

Ticks and the pathogens they vector are significant to both animal and human health. The Kenyan-Ugandan cattle corridor is of interest as Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus is a tick-borne disease that may spread by Hyalomma spp. ticks that move around on infested livestock. This area is also of importance economically as ticks spread pathogens such as Theileria parva and Anaplasma marginale that kill livestock, thus impacting farmers' and pastoralists' livelihoods. The first study in this thesis involves using PCR to detect Coxiella and Rickettsia spp. endosymbionts in Rhipicephalus appendiculatus ticks and making maximum-likelihood phylogeny trees to confirm their identity. Coxiella and Rickettsia endosymbionts were closely related to their pathogenic counterparts but distinct enough to fall in their own clades. The second study in this thesis involves characterizing and designing microsatellite genetic markers for Hyalomma rufipes using the QDD pipeline, PCR and agarose gel electrophoresis, fragment analysis, and additional statistical calculations with Fstat and Genepop software. The microsatellite markers are polymorphic enough to be used in future population genetics studies as they have high gene diversity, numbers of alleles, and a wide range of PCR product sizes.