Abstract
Due to increased travel, climatic, and environmental changes, the incidence of tick-borne disease in both humans and animals is increasing throughout Europe. Therefore, extended surveillance tools are desirable. To accurately screen tick-borne pathogens (TBPs), a large scale epidemiological study was conducted on 7050 Ixodes ricinus nymphs collected from France, Denmark, and the Netherlands using a powerful new high-throughput approach. This advanced methodology permitted the simultaneous detection of 25 bacterial, and 12 parasitic species (including; Borrelia, Anaplasma, Ehrlichia, Rickettsia, Bartonella, Candidatus Neoehrlichia, Coxiella, Francisella, Babesia, and Theileria genus) across 94 samples. We successfully determined the prevalence of expected (Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato, Anaplasma phagocytophilum, Rickettsia helvetica, Candidatus Neoehrlichia mikurensis, Babesia divergens, Babesia venatorum), unexpected (Borrelia miyamotoi), and rare (Bartonella henselae) pathogens in the three European countries. Moreover we detected Borrelia spielmanii, Borrelia miyamotoi, Babesia divergens, and Babesia venatorum for the first time in Danish ticks. This surveillance method represents a major improvement in epidemiological studies, able to facilitate comprehensive testing of TBPs, and which can also be customized to monitor emerging diseases.
Highlights
In Europe, ticks are the most important vectors of human and animal infectious diseases, and transmit more pathogens than any other arthropod (Jongejan and Uilenberg, 2004; Colwell et al, 2011)
The assay for B. burgdorferi sensu stricto cross-reacted with B. garinii and B. valaisiana DNA
The set of primers and probe designed against B. burgdorferi s.s. cross-reacted with B. garinii and B. valaisiana
Summary
In Europe, ticks are the most important vectors of human and animal infectious diseases, and transmit more pathogens than any other arthropod (Jongejan and Uilenberg, 2004; Colwell et al, 2011). These diseases are normally maintained in stable natural cycles involving ticks, wildlife, and/or domestic animals, whereas humans are accidental hosts (De La Fuente et al, 2008). The relapsing fever spirochete, Borrelia miyamotoi, is transmitted by the same Ixodes species and has recently been described in ticks as well as in a human case from the Netherlands (Hovius et al, 2013). EU1) and Theileria spp. (Bishop et al, 2004; Bonnet et al, 2007a)
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