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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Cell. Infect. Microbiol.
Sec. Molecular Bacterial Pathogenesis
Volume 14 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2024.1496925
This article is part of the Research Topic Advances in Tick-Borne Diseases View all 6 articles

Two decades of research on Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato in questing Ixodes ricinus ticks in Slovakia

Provisionally accepted
Veronika Rusňáková Tarageľová Veronika Rusňáková Tarageľová 1*Markéta Derdáková Markéta Derdáková 1Diana Selyemová Diana Selyemová 1Michal Chvostáč Michal Chvostáč 1Barbara Mangová Barbara Mangová 1Yuliya M Didyk Yuliya M Didyk 1,2Juraj Koči Juraj Koči 1Stanislav Kolenčík Stanislav Kolenčík 3Bronislava Víchová Bronislava Víchová 4Branislav Peťko Branislav Peťko 5Michal Stanko Michal Stanko 4Maria Kazimirova Maria Kazimirova 1
  • 1 Institute of Zoology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, Slovakia
  • 2 I.I. Schmalhausen Institute of Zoology, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (NAN Ukraine), Kyiv, Ukraine
  • 3 Department of Ecology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia
  • 4 Institute of Parasitology (SAS), Košice, Slovakia
  • 5 University of Veterinary Medicine in Kosice, Košice, KoSice, Slovakia

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    In Europe, Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato (s.l.), the causative agent of Lyme borreliosis is transmitted by the castor bean tick, Ixodes ricinus. In the last decades, global changes affect the spread of ticks and also their bionomics. The aim of this study was summarization of a large dataset obtained during 20 years of research. The research was carried out in 1999-2019 at 16 localities in Slovakia that were continuously monitored. In total, 17,249 questing I. ricinus ticks were tested for the presence of B. burgdorferi s.l. The total prevalence of infected ticks was 18.8 % (3,248/17,249), with 15.1 % (1,557/10,302) infected nymphs and 24.3 % (1,691/6,947) infected adults. Nine species of B. burgdorferi s.l. were identified.Borrelia afzelii (37.1%), B. garinii/bavariensis (24.7%), and B. valaisiana (15.4%) were the most frequent and were present at all study sites, followed by B. lusitaniae (12.6%), B. burgdorferi sensu stricto (4.1%) and B. spielmanii (1.6%). Borrelia bavariensis was confirmed only in four samples (0.1%), however, detection of this species has been performed only since 2017. Borrelia bissettii and B. kurtenbachii were both recorded in one case. The total prevalence differed significantly among four habitat types (urban, suburban, natural, agricultural). The highest infection prevalence was confirmed in natural habitat (22.0%), the lowest in urban habitat (13.2%). In addition, molecular analysis was carried out on part of the collected ticks previously morphologically identified as I. ricinus. The analysis did not confirm the occurrence of Ixodes inopinatus in Slovakia. Long-term monitoring of the abundance and spread of ticks as well as the prevalence and genetic variability of tick-borne pathogens can reveal the impact of global climatic and socio-economic changes on different habitats, including natural foci of tick-borne pathogens.

    Keywords: Borrelia, Prevalence, species diversity, habitat, Long-term trends

    Received: 15 Sep 2024; Accepted: 20 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Rusňáková Tarageľová, Derdáková, Selyemová, Chvostáč, Mangová, Didyk, Koči, Kolenčík, Víchová, Peťko, Stanko and Kazimirova. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Veronika Rusňáková Tarageľová, Institute of Zoology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, Slovakia

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