The prevalence of Rickettsia felis DNA in fleas collected from cats and dogs in the UK

Swaid Abdullah; Philippa Lait; Chris Helps; Hannah Newbury; Richard Wall

doi:10.1016/j.vetpar.2020.109143

The prevalence of Rickettsia felis DNA in fleas collected from cats and dogs in the UK

Swaid Abdullah, Philippa Lait, Chris Helps, Hannah Newbury, Richard Wall^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article (Academic Journal) › peer-review

6 Citations (Scopus)

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Abstract

In a large-scale survey in the UK, recruited veterinary practices were asked to inspect client-owned cats and dogs, selected at random between April and June 2018, following a standardised flea inspection protocol. A total of 326 veterinary practices participated and 812 cats and 662 dogs were examined during the 3-month period. Fleas were collected, identified to species level and fleas of the same species collected from a single animal were pooled together and treated as a single sample. A total of 470 pooled flea samples were screened by PCR and DNA sequence analysis for a subset of Rickettsia species including R. felis and R. typhi. On analysis, 27 (5.7%) of the pooled flea samples were positive for R. felis DNA; these were predominantly in the cat flea, Ctenocephalides felis, but one dog flea, Ctenocephalides canis was also positive for this pathogen.

Original language	English
Article number	109143
Number of pages	3
Journal	Veterinary Parasitology
Volume	282
Early online date	19 May 2020
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vetpar.2020.109143
Publication status	Published - 1 Jun 2020

Keywords

emerging disease
PCR
pet
Siphonaptera
surveillance
vector
zoonosis

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Accepted author manuscript, 243 KBLicence: CC BY-NC-ND

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@article{828b44171af14ffba49a61b9eedfd0db,

title = "The prevalence of Rickettsia felis DNA in fleas collected from cats and dogs in the UK",

abstract = "In a large-scale survey in the UK, recruited veterinary practices were asked to inspect client-owned cats and dogs, selected at random between April and June 2018, following a standardised flea inspection protocol. A total of 326 veterinary practices participated and 812 cats and 662 dogs were examined during the 3-month period. Fleas were collected, identified to species level and fleas of the same species collected from a single animal were pooled together and treated as a single sample. A total of 470 pooled flea samples were screened by PCR and DNA sequence analysis for a subset of Rickettsia species including R. felis and R. typhi. On analysis, 27 (5.7\%) of the pooled flea samples were positive for R. felis DNA; these were predominantly in the cat flea, Ctenocephalides felis, but one dog flea, Ctenocephalides canis was also positive for this pathogen. ",

keywords = "emerging disease, PCR, pet, Siphonaptera, surveillance, vector, zoonosis",

author = "Swaid Abdullah and Philippa Lait and Chris Helps and Hannah Newbury and Richard Wall",

year = "2020",

month = jun,

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doi = "10.1016/j.vetpar.2020.109143",

language = "English",

volume = "282",

journal = "Veterinary Parasitology",

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T1 - The prevalence of Rickettsia felis DNA in fleas collected from cats and dogs in the UK

AU - Abdullah, Swaid

AU - Lait, Philippa

AU - Helps, Chris

AU - Newbury, Hannah

AU - Wall, Richard

PY - 2020/6/1

Y1 - 2020/6/1

N2 - In a large-scale survey in the UK, recruited veterinary practices were asked to inspect client-owned cats and dogs, selected at random between April and June 2018, following a standardised flea inspection protocol. A total of 326 veterinary practices participated and 812 cats and 662 dogs were examined during the 3-month period. Fleas were collected, identified to species level and fleas of the same species collected from a single animal were pooled together and treated as a single sample. A total of 470 pooled flea samples were screened by PCR and DNA sequence analysis for a subset of Rickettsia species including R. felis and R. typhi. On analysis, 27 (5.7%) of the pooled flea samples were positive for R. felis DNA; these were predominantly in the cat flea, Ctenocephalides felis, but one dog flea, Ctenocephalides canis was also positive for this pathogen.

AB - In a large-scale survey in the UK, recruited veterinary practices were asked to inspect client-owned cats and dogs, selected at random between April and June 2018, following a standardised flea inspection protocol. A total of 326 veterinary practices participated and 812 cats and 662 dogs were examined during the 3-month period. Fleas were collected, identified to species level and fleas of the same species collected from a single animal were pooled together and treated as a single sample. A total of 470 pooled flea samples were screened by PCR and DNA sequence analysis for a subset of Rickettsia species including R. felis and R. typhi. On analysis, 27 (5.7%) of the pooled flea samples were positive for R. felis DNA; these were predominantly in the cat flea, Ctenocephalides felis, but one dog flea, Ctenocephalides canis was also positive for this pathogen.

KW - emerging disease

KW - PCR

KW - pet

KW - Siphonaptera

KW - surveillance

KW - vector

KW - zoonosis

U2 - 10.1016/j.vetpar.2020.109143

DO - 10.1016/j.vetpar.2020.109143

M3 - Article (Academic Journal)

C2 - 32480031

SN - 0304-4017

VL - 282

JO - Veterinary Parasitology

JF - Veterinary Parasitology

M1 - 109143

ER -

The prevalence of Rickettsia felis DNA in fleas collected from cats and dogs in the UK

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Keywords

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