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Prevalence of tick-borne pathogens in questing Ixodes ricinus ticks in urban and suburban areas of Switzerland.

ABSTRACT: Throughout Europe, Ixodes ricinus transmits numerous pathogens. Its widespread distribution is not limited to rural but also includes urbanized areas. To date, comprehensive data on pathogen carrier rates of I. ricinus ticks in urban areas of Switzerland is lacking.Ixodes ricinus ticks sampled at 18 (sub-) urban collection sites throughout Switzerland showed carrier rates of 0% for tick-borne encephalitis virus, 18.0% for Borrelia burgdorferi (sensu lato), 2.5% for Borrelia miyamotoi, 13.5% for Rickettsia spp., 1.4% for Anaplasma phagocytophilum, 6.2% for "Candidatus Neoehrlichia mikurensis", and 0.8% for Babesia venatorum (Babesia sp., EU1). Site-specific prevalence at collection sites with n > 45 ticks (n = 9) significantly differed for B. burgdorferi (s.l.), Rickettsia spp., and "Ca. N. mikurensis", but were not related to the habitat type. Three hundred fifty eight out of 1078 I. ricinus ticks (33.2%) tested positive for at least one pathogen. Thereof, about 20% (71/358) were carrying two or three different potentially disease-causing agents. Using next generation sequencing, we could detect true pathogens, tick symbionts and organisms of environmental or human origin in ten selected samples.Our data document the presence of pathogens in the (sub-) urban I. ricinus tick population in Switzerland, with carrier rates as high as those in rural regions. Carriage of multiple pathogens was repeatedly observed, demonstrating the risk of acquiring multiple infections as a consequence of a tick bite.

SUBMITTER: Oechslin CP

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5680829 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Prevalence of tick-borne pathogens in questing Ixodes ricinus ticks in urban and suburban areas of Switzerland.

Oechslin Corinne P CP Heutschi Daniel D Lenz Nicole N Tischhauser Werner W Péter Olivier O Rais Olivier O Beuret Christian M CM Leib Stephen L SL Bankoul Sergei S Ackermann-Gäumann Rahel R

Parasites & vectors 20171109 1

<h4>Background</h4>Throughout Europe, Ixodes ricinus transmits numerous pathogens. Its widespread distribution is not limited to rural but also includes urbanized areas. To date, comprehensive data on pathogen carrier rates of I. ricinus ticks in urban areas of Switzerland is lacking.<h4>Results</h4>Ixodes ricinus ticks sampled at 18 (sub-) urban collection sites throughout Switzerland showed carrier rates of 0% for tick-borne encephalitis virus, 18.0% for Borrelia burgdorferi (sensu lato), 2.5% ...[more]

PMID: 29121976

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Project description:BackgroundLyme borreliosis and other tick-borne diseases emerge from increased interactions between humans, other animals, and infected ticks. The risk of acquiring a tick-borne infection varies across space and time, so knowledge of the occurrence and prevalence of pathogens in ticks can facilitate disease diagnosis in a specific area and the implementation of mitigation measures and awareness campaigns. Here we identify the occurrence and prevalence of several pathogens in Ixodes ricinus ticks in Wester Ross, Northwest Scotland, a region of high tourism and tick exposure, yet data-poor in terms of tick-borne pathogens.MethodsQuesting I. ricinus nymphs (n = 2828) were collected from 26 sites in 2018 and 2019 and tested for the presence of tick-borne pathogens using PCR-based methods. Prevalence was compared with other regions of Scotland, England, Wales, and the Netherlands.ResultsAnaplasma phagocytophilum (4.7% prevalence), Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato (s.l.) (2.2%), Babesia from clade X (0.2%), Rickettsia helvetica (0.04%), and Spiroplasma ixodetis (0.4%) were detected, but no Neoehrlichia mikurensis, Borrelia miyamotoi, or Babesia microti. Typing of A. phagocytophilum using a fragment of the GroEL gene identified the presence of both ecotype I and ecotype II. Genospecies identification of Borrelia burgdorferi s.l. revealed B. afzelii (53% of infected nymphs), B. garinii (9%), B. burgdorferi sensu stricto (7%), and B. valaisiana (31%). We found similar prevalence of A. phagocytophilum in Wester Ross as in the Netherlands, but higher than in other parts of Great Britain. We found lower B. burgdorferi s.l. prevalence than in England or the Netherlands, and similar to some other Scottish studies. We found higher prevalence of B. valaisiana and lower prevalence of B. garinii than in other Scottish studies. We found S. ixodetis at much lower prevalence than in the Netherlands, and R. helvetica at much lower prevalence than in England and the Netherlands.ConclusionsAs far as we know, this is the first description of S. ixodetis in Great Britain. The results are relevant for disease surveillance and management for public and veterinary health. The findings can also aid in designing targeted public health campaigns and in raising awareness among outdoor recreationists and professionals.

Project description:BACKGROUND: Raising abundance of ticks and tick-borne diseases in Europe is the result of multiple factors including climate changes and human activities. Herein, we investigated the presence and seasonal activity of Ixodes ricinus ticks from 10 urban and suburban sites in two different geographical areas of southeastern and northeastern Slovakia during 2008-2010. Our aim was to study the abundance of ticks in correlation with the environmental factors and their infection with Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato, Anaplasma phagocytophilum and Neoehrlichia mikurensis. METHODS: Questing I. ricinus ticks were collected from ten urban and suburban sites in Eastern Slovakia. A total of 670 ticks were further analysed for the presence of B. burgdorferi s.l., A. phagocytophilum and N. mikurensis by molecular methods. Tick site and environmental relations were analysed using General Linear Models (LM). The differences between the number of Lyme borreliosis cases between the Košice and Bardejov regions during a ten-year period were tested by Wilcoxon matched pairs test. RESULTS: In total, 2921 (1913 nymphs, 1008 adults) I. ricinus ticks were collected from 10 study sites during the main questing season. Tick activity and relative abundance differed between locations and months. Temperature and humidity were the main factors affecting the tick abundance and questing activity. Out of 670 examined ticks, 10.15% were infected with spirochetes from B. burgdorferi s.l. complex (represented by B. afzelii, B. garinii, B.valaisiana and B. burgdorferi s.s.), 2.69% with the A. phagocytophilum and 2.39% with N. mikurensis. The number of Lyme borreliosis cases per 100,000 inhabitants in the Bardejov region was significantly higher than in the Košice region. CONCLUSIONS: Our data indicate that the risk of infection with tick-borne pathogens in Eastern Slovakia is common since 15.2% of ticks were infected at least with one of the tested microorganisms. Even though the abundance of ticks was affected by the microclimatic conditions and the prevalence of pathogens differed between the habitats, the infection risk for humans is also affected by human activities leading to an increased contact with infected ticks.

Dataset Information

Prevalence of tick-borne pathogens in questing Ixodes ricinus ticks in urban and suburban areas of Switzerland.

Publications

Prevalence of tick-borne pathogens in questing Ixodes ricinus ticks in urban and suburban areas of Switzerland.

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