Abstract
More and more studies have investigated the presence of potentially Coxiella-like endosymbionts (CLEs) in ticks. We collected ticks from one dairy cattle farm in an integrated dairy farm area in Bogor Regency, West Java Province, Indonesia. Morphological identification established all ticks as Haemaphysalis bispinosa Neumann, 1987. For this study, three (3/29) engorged females were randomly selected to be reared to produce unfed larval progeny. The 16 S rRNA nucleotide sequences were detected molecularly by PCR in 100% of the three representative unfed larval pools. Similarity and phylogenetic analyses of the 16 S rRNA partial sequences suggested that all sequenced representative samples harboured CLEs. All sequences clustered with previous CLEs from H. bispinosa in Malaysia. Phylogenetic analyses also showed that CLEs from the same tick genera may not always be grouped in the same Coxiella genus clade. The location from which they were isolated could influence the designated clade. This suggests a significant relationship between CLEs and the species and geographic distributions of tick hosts. This study is also the first to document the presence of natural, vertically transmitted tick-specific endosymbionts in H. bispinosa in Indonesia, further questioning the importance of CLEs in this tick species.