Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018 Mar 20;11(1):165.
doi: 10.1186/s13071-018-2721-z.

The diversity of tick-borne bacteria and parasites in ticks collected from the Strandja Nature Park in south-eastern Bulgaria

Julian Nader  1 , Nina Król  1 , Martin Pfeffer  2 , Valerie Ohlendorf  3 , Marco Marklewitz  3   4 , Christian Drosten  3   4 , Sandra Junglen  3   4 , Anna Obiegala  1
Affiliations

The diversity of tick-borne bacteria and parasites in ticks collected from the Strandja Nature Park in south-eastern Bulgaria

Julian Nader et al. Parasit Vectors. .

Abstract

Background: Ticks are important carriers of many different zoonotic pathogens. To date, there are many studies about ticks and tick-borne pathogens (TBP), but only a few were carried out in Bulgaria. The present study intends to detect the prevalence of tick-borne bacteria and parasites occurring at the Black Sea in Bulgaria to evaluate the zoonotic potential of the tick-borne pathogens transmitted by ticks in this area.

Methods: In total, cDNA from 1541 ticks (Dermacentor spp., Haemaphysalis spp., Hyalomma spp., Ixodes spp. and Rhipicephalus spp.) collected in Bulgaria by flagging method or from hosts was tested in pools of ten individuals each for Anaplasma phagocytophilum, Babesia spp., Borrelia burgdorferi (s.l.), Rickettsia spp. and "Candidatus Neoehrlichia mikurensis" via conventional and quantitative real-time PCR. Subsequently, samples from positive pools were tested individually and a randomized selection of positive PCR samples was purified, sequenced, and analyzed.

Results: Altogether, 23.2% of ticks were infected with at least one of the tested pathogens. The highest infection levels were noted in nymphs (32.3%) and females (27.5%). Very high prevalence was detected for Rickettsia spp. (48.3%), followed by A. phagocytophilum (6.2%), Borrelia burgdorferi (s.l.) (1.7%), Babesia spp. (0.4%) and "Ca. Neoehrlichia mikurensis" (0.1%). Co-infections were found in 2.5% of the tested ticks (mainly Ixodes spp.). Sequencing revealed the presence of Rickettsia monacensis, R. helvetica, and R. aeschlimannii, Babesia microti and B. caballi, and Theileria buffeli and Borrelia afzelli.

Conclusion: This study shows very high prevalence of zoonotic Rickettsia spp. in ticks from Bulgaria and moderate to low prevalence for all other pathogens tested. One should take into account that tick bites from this area could lead to Rickettsia infection in humans and mammals.

Keywords: Anaplasma phagocytophilum; Babesia; Borrelia; Bulgaria; Dermacentor reticulatus; Ixodes ricinus; Rhipicephalus; Rickettsia; “Candidatus Neoehrlichia mikurensis”.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Not applicable.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Parola P, Paddock CD, Socolovschi C, Labruna MB, Mediannikov O, Kernif T, et al. Update on tick-borne rickettsioses around the world: a geographic approach. Clin Microbiol Rev. 2013;26:657–702. doi: 10.1128/CMR.00032-13. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Pishmisheva M, Stoycheva M, Vatev N, Semedjiva M. Mediterranean spotted fever in children in the Pazardjik Region, South Bulgaria. Pediatr Infect Dis J. 2014;33:542–544. doi: 10.1097/INF.0000000000000217. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Baymakova M, Pekova L, Parousheva P, Andonova R, Plochev K. Severe clinical forms of Mediterranean spotted fever: a case series from an endemic area in Bulgaria. Vojnosanit Pregl. 2016; 10.2298/VSP160907380B.
    1. Christova I, Schouls L, van de Pol I, Park J, Panayotov S, Lefterova V, et al. High prevalence of granulocytic Ehrlichiae and Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato in Ixodes ricinus ticks from Bulgaria. J Clin Microbiol. 2001;39:4172–4174. doi: 10.1128/JCM.39.11.4172-4174.2001. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Christova I, Dimitrov H, Trifonova I, Gladnishka T, Mitkovska V, Stojanova A, et al. Detection of human tick-borne pathogens in rodents from Bulgaria. Acta Zool Bulg. 2012; Suppl 4:111–114.

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources