Dr Saravanan Thangamani is supported by NIH grants 1UC7AI094660 and 1R21AI097675. Dr Rodrigo I Marques dos Santos is supported by DOD grant #W81XWH-09-2-0053. This research was partially supported by NIH grant 1UC7AI094660 and by the Department of Pathology start-up funds to Dr Saravanan Thangamani. We thank Dr Lucas Blanton (University of Texas Medical Branch, USA) for providing R. amblyommii antibodies.
Note: Supplementary Information for this article can be found on Emerging Microbes and Infections' website (http://www.nature.com/emi/).