Prevalence of <i>Borrelia burgdorferi</i> in ticks removed from skin of people and circumstances of being bitten – research from the area of Poland, 2012–2014

Abstract

Introduction. During feeding, the tick sucks blood from the host along with the pathogens that are in the blood, simultaneously exchanging its own pathogens with the host. Humans can also be a host. It is important to understand the most typical circumstances in which people might become infected with Borrelia burgdorferi. This knowledge will help to prepare health education programmes aimed at the prevention of Lyme disease and other tick-borne diseases. Objective. The aim of the study was to determine the percentage of ticks infected with Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato, depending on the circumstances of getting bitten. Materials and method. The research material consisted of ticks acquired from people who had been bitten, and questionnaires completed by these people. 510 ticks were acquired from 257 females and 253 males. Following delivery of a tick for testing, the stage of its development was determined and a molecular assay of Borrelia burgdorferi DNA performed. Results. A positive result of the nested-PCR test was obtained in 78 ticks, which represents 15.30% of all ticks. The infected ticks were collected from male (41 ticks -52.56%) and female subjects (37 ticks -47.44%). The biggest number of infected ticks were collected in autumn (54 ticks -69.23%) and from people who had been into forests (44 ticks -56.41%). Among the people from whom the infected ticks were acquired, the dominating group included persons over 16 years of age (53 persons -67.95%) and children aged 0-5 years (16 persons -20.51%). One in four infected ticks were acquired from the southwestern (20 ticks -25.64%) and eastern regions of Poland (21 ticks -26.92%). Conclusion. Infestation of ticks infected with Lyme disease spirochete in this study proved to be variable and depend on the season, the area of tick attack and the region in Poland. The results of the study clearly show that ticks infected with Borrelia burgdorferi inhabit all regions of Poland. The results are consistent with National Institute of Hygiene data which indicates that Lyme disease cases are recorded in all regions of Poland.

Long-Term Study of Borrelia and Babesia Species Distribution in Ixodes Ricinus and Dermacentor Recticulatus Ticks Removed From Humans in Poland, 2016-2019

“…The observed signi cant lower Borrelia infection rates in I. riciunus larvae (9%) compared to nymphs (25%) and in nymphs compared to adults (28%) is in accordance with previous studies on questing and engorged ticks [22,23,33,34,35,37].…”

“…For I. ricinus, we observed the peak of activity in June which is congruent with the results of our previous study on questing ticks [22] and other studies on seasonality of I. ricinus bites on humans [11,12]. The predominance of nymphs of up to 73% in dependence of month of study was similar to other European studies on ticks collected from humans [33][34][35][36][37][38]. The activity of larvae was the highest in August and September; however, only 54 specimens in total were removed from humans.…”

“…Overall in Europe, including Poland, the Borrelia prevalence in ticks removed from humans range from 5-29% [33,34,35,37,38,40,41,42,43,44]. In our study, the Borrelia prevalence has differed signi cantly between I. ricinus ticks removed from humans (25%) and questing ticks (11%, [22]).…”

“…This tick species appeared to show bimodal activity pattern with the highest density in March-May and September-November, whereas no ticks were collected in summer, which is typical for this tick species [32]. Dermacentor reticulatus ticks were also removed from patients in Germany, Belgium and Poland [33][34][35]; however, the frequency of occurrence of this species does not exceed a few percent.…”

Prevalence of pathogens in ticks collected from humans through citizen science in Belgium

“…In our sample, two out of the five specimens of the latter were sent from De Panne, on the border with France, where the tick has repeatedly been reported previously [42, 43]. Ixodes hexagonus was also removed from patients in Germany and D. reticulatus in Poland [37, 39].…”