Parasites of the rickettsial pathogens borne on ticks are an important factor of the human health problem particularly on wildlife border areas including the China-Russia-DPRK region. The paper evaluated the rate and spread of Rickettsia spp. across this area to design effective measures of control transboundary transmission. There were 1,961 questing samples of ticks collected altogether. The collected ticks were grouped based on the tick species, sex, collection localities and Environmental Variables once they have undergone morphological identification. The genomic DNA was extracted from each of the pools and screened for Rickettsia spp. by targeting the gltA, ompA, and 17-kDa genes. PCR-positive amplicons were sequenced and analyzed by phylogenies. GLM showed that tick species and geographic location were the most significant factors driving Rickettsia positivity rates. Phylogenetic analysis identified two Rickettsia species, Rickettsia canadensis and Rickettsia heilongjiangensis, among the questing ticks found in this work. This paper is the first report based on the molecular data on presence of R. canadensis and R. heilongjiangensis in this border zone. These results highlight the urgency of increasing efforts of tick vector control to reduce transboundary disease spreading.

To Cite This Article: Yin G, Li Y, Ji S, Huang B, Mohanta UK, Wang S, Wang J, Xu Y, Liu Z, Jin X, Li J, Xu Z, Wang Y, Han T and Xue S, 2026. First detection of Rickettsia canadensis and rickettsia heilongjiangensis in china-russia-dprk border areas. Pak Vet J, 46(5): 1304-1313. http://dx.doi.org/10.29261/pakvetj/2026.117