The brown dog tick, Rhipicephalus sanguineus is a vector of several pathogens, including Rickettsia rickettsii, Rickettsia massiliae, and Ehrlichia canis. This study genotyped ticks infesting dogs in Bulloch County kennels and tested them for tick-borne pathogens. 104 ticks were collected from 11 dogs and identified morphologically as R. sanguineus. Tick DNAs were extracted and their 12S rRNA mitochondrial genes were amplified and sequenced to determine their genotypes. Bioinformatic analyses were performed using BLAST and MEGA. The tick DNAs were tested for DNA of Rickettsia and Ehrlichia. Two tick genotypes were identified among 22 ticks sequenced - 21 (95.5%) ticks had temperate lineage genotype, and one tick had tropical lineage genotype (4.5%). Eight of 104 (7.7%) ticks were PCR-positive for Ehrlichia and 22 (21.2%) for Rickettsia. Our results indicate multiple introductions of dog ticks into Bulloch County have occurred and both Rickettsia and Ehrlichia are found in these ticks.
