Ticks (Acari: Ixodida) are implicated in vectoring the greatest variety of pathogenic microorganisms of human and veterinary importance than any other arthropod group. During the past decade, a third of the last world-wide pandemics have been associated with bacterial and protozoal emerging infectious diseases and over a quarter have been attributed to vector-borne disease.
Australia is home to 70 native and introduced ticks. While most have native wildlife hosts, only a few ticks are known to bite humans and to vector pathogens associated with human tick-borne diseases. However, the concern regarding the potential for zoonotic tick-borne illness in Australia has increased. The question of a novel tick-borne zoonotic disease acquired from Australian ticks is of critical scientific and political importance, and it is a conundrum that requires urgent research to provide evidence-based scientific data.
This presentation will discuss the methodology used to characterise the bacterial communities found within Australian ticks and the search for novel candidate pathogens. Our recent findings show that without the use of molecular advances, such as Next Generation Sequencing, many bacteria of potential medical and veterinary interest could go undetected.