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Objective To understand the community composition of tick - borne pathogens carried by Ixodes persulcatus and the co - infection of Candidatus Rickettsia tarasevichiae (CRT) and Beiji nairovirus (BJNV) in ticks in the Arshan area of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Methods Free ticks were collected from BaiLang Town, Arshan City, China, and identified by morphological and molecular biology. Total RNA was extracted from tick samples containing unknown pathogens, and cDNA was synthesized and analyzed by metagenomic next generation sequencing (mNGS). The emerging disease - causing pathogens with high abundance at the level of viral and bacterial genera were selected for the analysis of infections and co - infections. The infection of CRT and BJNV in ticks was detected by reverse transcription - polymerase chain reaction (RT - PCR). Sequencing results were analyzed for homology and phylogenetic relationships. Results A total of 617 ticks were collected in this study, all of which were I. persulcatus. High - throughput sequencing results showed that the bacterial composition at the genus level, Rickettsia had the highest abundance of about 77%, and at the species level, Rickettsia canadensis had the highest abundance of about 25%, CRT 1%. Viral composition was highest at the genus level for Orthonairovirus at approximately 60% abundance and at the species level for BJNV at approximately 45 % abundance. CRT and BJNV infections were detected in the samples with a pool positivity rate (PPR) of 96. 15% and 88. 46%, respectively, and there was a compound infection, with a minimum infection rate (MIR) of 3. 72% for the compound infection. Conclusion This study reveals the composition of active species in the microbial community of free - ranging I. persulcatus in Arshan area through mNGS, and find for the first time that CRT andBJNV co - infections exist in I. persulcatus in this area. Therefore, the potential public health risk of CRT and BJNV in this region should be assessed to prevent the occurrence of zoonotic diseases, and the outbreak surveillance of CRT and BJNV - induced diseases should be strengthened. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Objective: To evaluate the effects of environmental factors the distribution of Ixodes persulcatus , and to predict the future suitable habitats of I. persulcatus in China., Methods: The known distribution sites of I. persulcatus in China were captured from national and international published literatures. The effects of 14 environmental factors on the distribution of I. persulcatus were examined using the Jackknife test, including mean annual temperature, mean monthly temperature range, isothermality, temperature seasonality, maximum temperature of the warmest month, minimum temperature of the coldest month, temperature annual range, mean temperature of the wettest quarter, mean temperature of the driest quarter, mean temperature of the wet-test quarter, mean temperature of the coldest quarter, annual mean precipitation, precipitation of the wettest month, precipitation of the driest month, precipitation seasonality, precipitation of the wettest quarter, precipitation of the driest quarter, precipitation of the warmest quarter, precipitation of the coldest quarter, elevation, slope, aspect and vegetation. The suitable habitats of I. persulcatus were predicted in China using the maximum entropy model and ArcGIS 10.7 software with the environmental factors., Results: Currently, the highly suitable habitats of I. persulcatus covered an area of 886 600 km 2 in China, which were predominantly located in northeastern China. The environmental factors that contributed more than 10% to the distribution of the suitable habitats of I. persulcatus in China included annual temperature variation range (39.1%), the coldest quarterly precipitation (23.2%), and the annual mean precipitation (11.9%). Based on the maximum entropy model, the suitable habitats of I. persulcatus were predicted to show a shrinking tendency towards northeastern China in 2070., Conclusions: The suitable habitat of I. persulcatus strongly correlates with temperature and precipitation, and climate and environmental changes may lead to shrinking of the future suitable habitat of I. persulcatus in China.