Total RNA was extracted from blood, organ tissue, and fecal samples, as well as ticks, using Nucleo Spin RNA Blood (MN, Düren, Germany), RNeasy Plus Mini Kit (Qiagen, Valencia, California USA), RNeasy Plus Universal Mini Kit (Qiagen) and TRIzol LS Reagent (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, California, USA), respectively, following the manufacturer’s instructions. DNA was extracted using the DNeasy Blood and Tissue kit (Qiagen). For RNA library construction, aliquots of RNA solution were pooled in equal quantity (Supplementary Table S2). The SMARTer Stranded Total RNA-Seq Kit v2 (TaKaRa, Dalian, China) and KAPA RNA HyperPrep Kit with RiboErase (HMR; KAPA, Wilmington, Massachusetts, USA) was used to construct RNA libraries from blood, organ tissue, and fecal samples, respectively. Ribosomal (r) RNA was removed using the Ribo-Zero-Gold (HMR) Kit (Illumina, San Diego, California, USA). Paired-end (150 bp) sequencing of each RNA library was performed on the HiSeqX10 platform (Illumina).