Francisella-like endosymbionts of ticks

Ticks affect human and animal health both directly by their blood feeding and indirectly by transmission of many disease-causing bacteria, such as Rickettsia, Ehrlichia, Borrelia, Coxiella, Cowdria, Anaplasma, Aegyptionella, and Tularemia, as well as many viruses (Piesman and Gage, 1996). In addition to these infectious agents, ticks harbor bacterial endosymbionts, such as Wolbachia persica, which was first isolated from the soft tick now classified as Argus arboreus (Suitor and Weiss, 1961).