This study was carried out in north-eastern Poland during two hunting seasons between 2018 and 2020. Ticks (
Ixodes ricinus and
Dermacentor reticulatus) were removed from wild cervids and boars and examined for the presence of
Borrelia spirochetes and Rickettsiales members:
Rickettsia spp. and
Anaplasma phagocytophilum. The present study contributes to the knowledge of even-toed ungulates, which are an important reservoir of the above-mentioned pathogens and a potential source of infections for humans through ticks as vectors. Almost 40% of the collected ticks (191 out of 484) were infected with the following pathogens: 3.3% with
Borrelia spp., 19.2% with
A. phagocytophilum and 26.9% with
Rickettsia spp. Only the ticks collected from cervids carried
Borrelia. Typing of the species DNA confirmed the presence of
B. afzelii,
B. garinii,
B. lusitaniae and
B. miyamotoi. An analysis of
Rickettsia spp. sequences using the GenBank data revealed the presence of
R. helvetica,
R. raoultii and
R. monacensis. Monoinfections (79.1%) dominated over co-infections (20.9%). Among co-infections, the most frequent was
A. phagocytophilum/
Rickettsia spp. (70%), however co-infections, including
B. afzelii/
A. phagocytophilum,
B. afzelii/
Rickettsia spp.,
B. miyamotoi/
A. phagocytophilum and
B. afzelii/
B. garinii/
B. lusitaniae, were also noted. Significant differences were observed in the affinity of some pathogens to their vectors. Thus,
Borrelia spp. and
A. phagocytophilum were more frequently detected in
I. ricinus (5.3% and 23.1%) than in
D. reticulatus (1.2% and 15.3%). Infection frequency with
Rickettsia spp. was similar (approximately 25–29%) in both tick species. The prevalence of
A. phagocytophilum and
Rickettsia spp. in ticks removed from cervids was 19.8% and 27.1%, and in ticks from wild boars it was 13.3% and 24.4%, respectively.
View Full-Text
►▼
Show Figures
This is an open access article distributed under the
Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited