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Seasonal analysis of Rickettsia species in ticks in an agricultural site of Slovakia

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Abstract

Many rickettsiae of the spotted fever group are emerging pathogens causing serious diseases associated with vertebrate hosts. Ixodidae ticks are known as their vectors. Investigation of the relative abundance of questing Ixodes ricinus and their infection with Rickettsia spp. in an agricultural site comprising a game reserve in Slovakia was the aim of this study. In total, 2198 I. ricinus (492 larvae, 1503 nymphs and 203 adults) were collected by flagging the vegetation along 100 m2 transects in Rozhanovce (eastern Slovakia): 334, 595 and 1269 in 2011, 2012 and 2013, respectively. Considering questing nymphs and adults, the highest relative density of 81 individuals/100 m2 was observed in May 2013, the lowest of 0.3 individuals/100 m2 in March 2012. A total of 1056 ticks (853 nymphs, 100 females and 103 males; 2011: n = 329, 2012: n = 509 and 2013: n = 218) were individually screened by PCR-based methods for the presence of Rickettsia spp. The overall prevalences were 7.3 % for nymphs, 15 % for females, 7.8 % for males; 7.0 % in 2011, 8.4 % in 2012, and 8.7 % in 2013. The maximum prevalences were observed in July in nymphs and in May in adults. Sequencing showed infection with R. helvetica in 73 ticks (72.6 % nymphs, 16.4 % females, 11 % males) and with R. monacensis in 11 ticks (8 nymphs, 3 females). The results showed the circulation of pathogenic Rickettsia species in the agricultural site and a potential risk for humans to encounter infected ticks.

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Acknowledgments

The study was partly funded by EU grant FP7-261504 EDENext and is catalogued by the EDENext Steering Committee as EDENext362 (http://www.edenext.eu). The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Commission. Financial support of grant APVV DO7RP-0014-11 and Project No. 2/0061/13 from the Scientific Grant Agency of Ministry of Education and Slovak Academy of Sciences are acknowledged. The authors thank Dr. Lucia Blaňarová for her help with flagging of ticks from the vegetation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Virology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Dúbravska cesta 9, 845 05, Bratislava, Slovakia

    Eva Špitalská

  2. Institute of Zoology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Dúbravska cesta 9, 845 06, Bratislava, Slovakia

    Michal Stanko, Lenka Mahríková & Mária Kazimírová

  3. Institute of Parasitology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Hlinkova 3, 040 01, Košice, Slovakia

    Michal Stanko, Ladislav Mošanský, Jasna Kraljik & Dana Miklisová

  4. Department of Zoology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Comenius University, Mlynská dolina B-1, 842 15, Bratislava, Slovakia

    Jasna Kraljik

  5. Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, Pavol Jozef Šafárik University, 040 01, Košice, Slovakia

    Martin Bona

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  1. Eva Špitalská
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Correspondence to Eva Špitalská.

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The experiments presented in this paper comply with current laws of the Slovak Republic. This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.

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Špitalská, E., Stanko, M., Mošanský, L. et al. Seasonal analysis of Rickettsia species in ticks in an agricultural site of Slovakia. Exp Appl Acarol 68, 315–324 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10493-015-9941-0

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