Assessing human exposure to spotted fever and typhus group rickettsiae in Ontario, Canada (2013–2018): a retrospective, cross-sectional study

Table 1 Rickettsiae reported from Ontario, or associated with vectors, or inveterate hosts present in Ontario

Rickettsiae^a	Disease	Potential Ontario vectors or invertebrate hosts
Spotted fever group
Rickettsia akari	Rickettsialpox	Mites:Liponyssoides sanguineus
Rickettsia felis	Flea-borne spotted fever	Fleas: Ctenocephalides felis
Rickettsia montanensis	Unknown pathogenicity^b	Ticks:Amblyomma americanum, Dermacentor variabilis
Rickettsia peacockii	Endosymbiont, non-pathogenic	Ticks:D. variabilis
Rickettsia rickettsii	Rocky Mountain spotted fever	Ticks:A. americanum, D. variabilis
Typhus group
Rickettsia typhi	Murine typhus	Fleas: C. felis
Ancestral group
Rickettsia canadensis	Endosymbiont, non-pathogenic	Ticks: Haemaphysalis leporispalustris

^a Selected references [5, 12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20]. Not included are rickettsiae detected in adventitious ticks collected in Ontario (Rickettsia parkeri in Amblyomma maculatum) [16]
^bWhile human infections have been associated with this Rickettsia species, investigators did not confirm the etiological agent involved [21]