{"id":9950,"date":"2025-07-23T11:04:35","date_gmt":"2025-07-23T16:04:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/?p=9950"},"modified":"2025-07-23T11:04:38","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T16:04:38","slug":"scientists-crack-genome-of-soft-tick-that-threatens-pigs-and-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/2025\/07\/23\/scientists-crack-genome-of-soft-tick-that-threatens-pigs-and-people\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientists Crack Genome of Soft Tick That Threatens Pigs and People"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"panel body-content\"><div class=\"panel__container\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.porkbusiness.com\/news\/industry\/scientists-crack-genome-soft-tick-threatens-pigs-and-people\">Pork Business<\/a> Not only is the\u00a0<em>Ornithodoros turicata<\/em>\u00a0tick a potential vector of the ASF virus, but it also carries human relapsing fever, a severe bacterial infection. Scientists at&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/agriliferesearch.tamu.edu\/\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"Texas A&amp;M AgriLife Research, opens in a new window\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Texas A&amp;M AgriLife Research<\/a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bcm.edu\/\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"Baylor College of Medicine, opens in a new window\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Baylor College of Medicine<\/a>&nbsp;have mapped the DNA of a tick that can spread African swine fever (ASF), a deadly disease in pigs. Not only is the&nbsp;<em>Ornithodoros turicata<\/em>&nbsp;tick a potential vector of the ASF virus, but it also carries human relapsing fever \u2014 a severe bacterial infection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Researchers say the sequenced genome will allow further study of chromosomes linked to specific biological functions. Co-author Pete Teel, AgriLife Research entomologist and Regents professor in the Texas A&amp;M department of entomology, says this will create opportunities for researchers to develop novel tools to control the pest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cPhysiology, development and reproduction of these ticks is all based on their genetics, and this allows us to open the doors to those discoveries,\u201d Teel says in a Texas A&amp;M AgriLife&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/agrilifetoday.tamu.edu\/2025\/07\/22\/agrilife-research-scientist-helps-crack-genome-of-a-soft-tick\/\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"release, opens in a new window\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">release<\/a>. \u201cThose discoveries create opportunities for novel genetic tools we might use for surveillance and control measures against the tick and the pathogens it carries.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pork Business Not only is the\u00a0Ornithodoros turicata\u00a0tick a potential vector of the ASF virus, but it also carries human relapsing fever, a severe bacterial infection. Scientists at&nbsp;Texas A&amp;M AgriLife Research&nbsp;and&nbsp;Baylor College of Medicine&nbsp;have mapped the DNA of a tick that can spread African swine fever (ASF), a deadly disease in pigs. Not only is the&nbsp;Ornithodoros [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[71],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tick-bourne-diseases"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9950"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9950\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9951,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9950\/revisions\/9951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}