Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato and co‐infections with Anaplasma phagocytophilum and Rickettsia spp. in Ixodes ricinus in Hamburg, Germany

Abstract

To obtain initial data on Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato (Spirochaetales: Spirochaetaceae) in Ixodes ricinus (Ixodida: Ixodidae) ticks in Hamburg, Germany, 1400 questing ticks were collected by flagging at 10 different public recreation areas in 2011 and analysed using probe-based quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. The overall rate of infection with B. burgdorferi s.l. was 34.1%; 30.0% of adults were infected (36.7% of females and 26.0% of males), as were 34.5% of nymphs. Significant differences in tick infection rates were observed between the spring and summer/autumn months, as well as among sampling locations. Borrelia genospecies identification by reverse line blotting was successful in 43.6% of positive tick samples. The most frequent genospecies was Borrelia garinii/Borrelia bavariensis, followed by Borrelia afzelii, Borrelia valaisiana, B. burgdorferi sensu stricto, Borrelia spielmanii, Borrelia bissettii and Borrelia lusitaniae. Based on previously published data, co-infection of Borrelia and Rickettsiales spp. was determined in 25.8% of ticks. Overall, 22.9% of ticks were co-infected with Rickettsia spp. (Rickettsiales: Rickettsiaceae), 1.7% with Anaplasma phagocytophilum (Rickettsiales: Anaplasmataceae), and 1.2% with both pathogens. Study results show a high prevalence of Borrelia-positive ticks in recreation areas in the northern German city of Hamburg and the potential health risk to humans in these areas should not be underestimated.

Approaches for Reverse Line Blot-Based Detection of Microbial Pathogens in Ixodes ricinus Ticks Collected in Austria and Impact of the Chosen Method

“…We detected high numbers of coinfections (27.5%) with multiple genospecies among the B. burgdorferi sensu lato-positive ticks, similarly to other studies (42,43). In Denmark, coinfections with multiple strains were detected even more frequently than single infections (42).…”

Prevention of transmission of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato and Anaplasma phagocytophilum by Ixodes spp. ticks to dogs treated with the Seresto® collar (imidacloprid 10% + flumethrin 4.5%)

“…In the representative batch testing of the collected ticks, the infection rate of Bbsl in study 1 ranged between 19.8 and 33%. This is comparable to data in field studies in Germany with infection rates in ticks varying from 9.5 to 34.1% (Bingsohn et al 2013;Schreiber et al 2014;Tappe et al 2014;May et al 2015). However, retrospective PCR testing of the attached ticks only proved 13.8% to be Bbsl infected.…”

Questing Ixodes ricinus ticks (Acari, Ixodidae) as a vector of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato and Borrelia miyamotoi in an urban area of north-eastern Poland

“…The level of infection of I. ricinus ticks in Olsztyn was also much higher compared to the green areas in other large cities, such as Kiev 4% (Didyk et al 2017), Warsaw 10.9% (Kowalec et al 2017), Luxembourg 11.3% (Reye et al 2010), Salisbury 18.1% (Hansford et al 2017). A comparable or higher level was recorded only in large cities in Germany-Hanover (22.7%) (Tappe et al 2014) and Hamburg (34.1%) (May et al 2015). The data for Olsztyn confirmed the general trend that the level of infection of adult ticks is much higher than that of nymphs (Karbowiak et al 2018;Strnad et al 2014).…”