Canine ticks, tick-borne pathogens and associated risk factors in Nigeria

Apaa, Ternenge Thaddeus; Oke, Philip Oladele; Shima, Felix Kundu; Fidelis, Gberindyer Aondover; Dunham, Stephen; Tarlinton, Rachael

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[thumbnail of Figure 1 Maximum-likelihood phylogenetic tree of partial tick 16S nucleotide sequences. Named by species, GenBank accession number and country of origin. Bootstrap support values ≥70% are marked with diamonds on nodes]

Image (Figure 1 Maximum-likelihood phylogenetic tree of partial tick 16S nucleotide sequences. Named by species, GenBank accession number and country of origin. Bootstrap support values ≥70% are marked with diamonds on nodes)
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[thumbnail of Figure 2. A maximum-likelihood phylogenetic tree constructed with 1000 bootstrap approxima-tions, rooted at midpoint using piroplasm partial 18S nucleotide sequences downloaded from NCBI GenBank and this study (marked with asterisks).]

Image (Figure 2. A maximum-likelihood phylogenetic tree constructed with 1000 bootstrap approxima-tions, rooted at midpoint using piroplasm partial 18S nucleotide sequences downloaded from NCBI GenBank and this study (marked with asterisks).)
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Apaa, T. T. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7315-1262, Oke, P. O., Shima, F. K., Fidelis, G. A., Dunham, S. and Tarlinton, R. (2025) Canine ticks, tick-borne pathogens and associated risk factors in Nigeria. Pathogens, 14 (12). 1271. ISSN 2076-0817 doi: 10.3390/pathogens14121271

Abstract/Summary

Tick-borne pathogens (TBPs) pose a significant threat to canine health in Nigeria. Despite this, there is little data on the molecular identification of ticks and TBPs of dogs in Nigeria. This study assessed the prevalence of ticks and TBPs in Nigerian dogs, along with associated risk factors. A total of 259 dogs were enrolled in the study, from which 112 adult ticks were collected. Of these, 40 were characterized by molecular barcoding confirming Rhipicephalus sanguineus (R. sanguineus, 35/40) and Haemphysalis leachi (H. leachi, 5/40) infestations. Nucleotide sequences showed high percentage similarity to R. sanguineus tropical lineage and H. leachi sequences from Chad. Point-of-care (POC) testing of 259 dogs detected antibodies to TBPs in 40.9% of blood samples, with Ehrlichia (29.7%), Anaplasma (10.8%), and Dirofilaria (0.4%) species identified. PCR assays revealed a prevalence of 58.7% for TBPs, including Ehrlichia (40.5%) and Babesia (17.4%), with 7.3% co-infected. Risk factor analysis showed that adult dogs and those infested with ticks had a higher likelihood of TBP seropositivity. Exotic breeds and dogs examined during the rainy season were more likely to test positive for TBPs via PCR. Overall, this study demonstrates the high prevalence of diverse TBPs in Nigerian dogs and suggests that dog breed may play a role in susceptibility to diseases.

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Item Type	Article
URI	https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/id/eprint/127603
Identification Number/DOI	10.3390/pathogens14121271
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Life Sciences > School of Agriculture, Policy and Development > Department of Animal Sciences
Uncontrolled Keywords	canine ticks; tick-borne pathogens; risk factors; Nigeria
Publisher	MDPI
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Date Deposited:	23 Dec 2025 15:42	Date item deposited into CentAUR
Last Modified:	23 Dec 2025 16:00	Date item last modified