High Prevalence and Low Diversity of Rickettsia in Dermacentor reticulatus Ticks, Central Europe

Abstract

We collected 1,671 Dermacentor reticulatus ticks from 17 locations in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary. We found 47.9% overall prevalence of Rickettsia species in ticks over all locations. Sequence analysis confirmed that all tested samples belonged to R. raoultii, the causative agent of tick-borne lymphadenopathy.

Keywords

• Rickettsia
• Rickettsia raoultii
• Dermacentor reticulatus ticks
• tick-borne infections
• Dermacentor spp.-borne necrosis erythema lymphadenopathy
• DEBONEL