Genome-wide host-associated population structure of Sarcoptes scabiei: One Health implications

Abstract

Background Scabies, caused by the mite Sarcoptes scabiei, affects more than 200 million people at any one time and can be complicated by severe secondary bacterial disease. The same mite causes sarcoptic mange in companion animals, livestock and wildlife. Population-scale nuclear genomic data spanning diverse hosts and geographical regions remain limited. Methods We generated whole-genome sequence data for 106 S. scabiei samples and incorporated 19 publicly available datasets from humans, companion animals, livestock and wildlife. After quality filtering, 83 of 125 sample-level datasets were retained. We assessed ancestry, phylogenetic relationships, nucleotide diversity, genetic differentia..