Borrelia miyamotoiandCandidatusNeoehrlichia mikurensis inIxodes ricinusTicks, Romania

Kalmár, Zsuzsa; Sprong, Hein; Mihalca, Andrei Daniel; Gherman, Călin Mircea; Dumitrache, Mirabela Oana; Coipan, Elena Claudia; Fonville, Manoj; Cozma, Vasile

doi:10.3201/eid2203.150140

Cited by 18 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…In 2013 B. miyamotoi was identified as a human pathogen in Europe (Hovius et al, 2013 ). This bacterium has been also recently identified in Romania (Kalmár et al, 2016 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 65%

Borrelia Diversity and Co-infection with Other Tick Borne Pathogens in Ticks

Răileanu

Moutailler

Pavel³

et al. 2017

Front. Cell. Infect. Microbiol.

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Identifying Borrelia burgdorferi as the causative agent of Lyme disease in 1981 was a watershed moment in understanding the major impact that tick-borne zoonoses can have on public health worldwide, particularly in Europe and the USA. The medical importance of tick-borne diseases has long since been acknowledged, yet little is known regarding the occurrence of emerging tick-borne pathogens such as Borrelia spp., Anaplasma phagocytophilum, Rickettsia spp., Bartonella spp., “Candidatus Neoehrlichia mikurensis”, and tick-borne encephalitis virus in questing ticks in Romania, a gateway into Europe. The objective of our study was to identify the infection and co-infection rates of different Borrelia genospecies along with other tick-borne pathogens in questing ticks collected from three geographically distinct areas in eastern Romania. We collected 557 questing adult and nymph ticks of three different species (534 Ixodes ricinus, 19 Haemaphysalis punctata, and 4 Dermacentor reticulatus) from three areas in Romania. We analyzed ticks individually for the presence of eight different Borrelia genospecies with high-throughput real-time PCR. Ticks with Borrelia were then tested for possible co-infections with A. phagocytophilum, Rickettsia spp., Bartonella spp., “Candidatus Neoehrlichia mikurensis”, and tick-borne encephalitis virus. Borrelia spp. was detected in I. ricinus ticks from all sampling areas, with global prevalence rates of 25.8%. All eight Borrelia genospecies were detected in I. ricinus ticks: Borrelia garinii (14.8%), B. afzelii (8.8%), B. valaisiana (5.1%), B. lusitaniae (4.9%), B. miyamotoi (0.9%), B. burgdorferi s.s (0.4%), and B. bissettii (0.2%). Regarding pathogen co-infection 64.5% of infected I. ricinus were positive for more than one pathogen. Associations between different Borrelia genospecies were detected in 9.7% of ticks, and 6.9% of I. ricinus ticks tested positive for co-infection of Borrelia spp. with other tick-borne pathogens. The most common association was between B. garinii and B. afzelii (4.3%), followed by B. garinii and B. lusitaniae (3.0%). The most frequent dual co-infections were between Borrelia spp. and Rickettsia spp., (1.3%), and between Borrelia spp. and “Candidatus Neoehrlichia mikurensis” (1.3%). The diversity of tick-borne pathogens detected in this study and the frequency of co-infections should influence all infection risk evaluations following a tick bite.

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“…In 2013 B. miyamotoi was identified as a human pathogen in Europe (Hovius et al, 2013 ). This bacterium has been also recently identified in Romania (Kalmár et al, 2016 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 65%

Borrelia Diversity and Co-infection with Other Tick Borne Pathogens in Ticks

Răileanu

Moutailler

Pavel³

et al. 2017

Front. Cell. Infect. Microbiol.

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“…In Europe, the main causative agent is Anaplasma phagocytophilum [15]. In Romania, this species is occurring in ticks [16] , while the reported seroprevalence against this bacterium in the Romanian dog population is 5.5% [6]. Moreover, similar results have been reported from other east-European countries [17, 18].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 71%

“…This tick-borne bacterium [19–21] has been detected in several mammal species, including humans [22–25]. Previous studies concerning this bacterium have shown that it has the ability to infect dogs [26] and that it is present in ticks in Romania [16, 27]. However, the scale to what this pathogen is infecting dogs has rarely been investigated.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Canine tick-borne diseases in pet dogs from Romania

et al. 2017

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BackgroundTick-borne diseases are of substantial concern worldwide for animals as well as humans. Dogs have been a human companion for millennia, and their significant impact on human life renders disease in dogs to be of great concern. Tick-borne diseases in dogs represent a substantial diagnostic challenge for veterinarians in that clinical signs are often diffuse and overlapping. In addition, co-infections with two or more pathogens enhance this problem further. Molecular methods are useful to disentangle co-infections and to accurately describe prevalence and geographical distribution of tick-borne diseases. At this point, this information is lacking in many areas worldwide. Romania is one such area, where prevalence and distribution of several important pathogens need to be further investigated. To address this, we screened blood samples from 96 sick dogs with molecular methods for eight different pathogens including Babesia spp., Theileria spp., Hepatozoon spp., Anaplasma spp., Ehrlichia spp., “Candidatus Neoehrlichia mikurensis”, Mycoplasma spp., and Borrelia spp.ResultsAs many as 45% (43/96) of the dogs in the study were infected with protozoan parasites. Babesia canis was the most frequent of these (28 infected dogs), whereas Hepatozoon canis was detected in 15% (14/96) and Babesia gibsoni was found in a single sample. Bacterial infection with Mycoplasma spp. occurred in 18% (17/96) of the sampled dogs. Obtained bacterial sequences revealed the occurrence of two species: Mycoplasma canis and “Candidatus Mycoplasma haematoparvum”. In several cases co-infection with protozoan parasites and Mycoplasma sp. were detected. All dogs were negative for Anaplasma spp., Ehrlichia spp., “Ca. Neoehrlichia mikurensis”, and for Borrelia spp. ConclusionsThe results from the present study reinforce the notion that Babesia canis is an important pathogen in the Romanian dog population. However, more surprisingly, another protozoan species, H. canis, seems to be infecting dogs to a larger extent than previously recognized in Romania. Well-known tick-borne bacterial disease agents such as Anaplasma spp. and Borrelia spp. were not detected. In contrast, less well-studied bacteria such as hemotropic Mycoplasma spp. were detected frequently. Moreover, co-infection might aggravate disease and complicate diagnosis and should be further studied in dogs.

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“…(rodents) 100 2010–11 [20] Unidentified larva (rodents) 100 2010–11 [20] I. hexagonus (dogs) 5.9–6.6 2010–11 [22] , [23] Hungary I. ricinus (vegetation) 8.8–24.3 2007–12 [25] , [26] Italy I. ricinus (vegetation) 10.5 2006–8 [27] I. ricinus (rodents) 5.3 2011–13 [28] I. ricinus (humans) 0.5 1995–2011 [29] Moldova I. ricinus (vegetation) 0.8 1960 [30] Norway I. ricinus (vegetation) 5.9 1998–99 B. afzelii, B. burgdorferi sensu stricto [31] Poland I. ricinus (vegetation) 0.3 2011 [32] I. ricinus (dogs) 8.1 2013–14 [33] I. hexagonus (dogs) 0.7 2013–14 [33] Romania I. ricinus (vegetation) 5.3–14.6 2013–14 Borrelia spp., Rickettsia spp. [34] , [35] I. ricinus (humans) 100 …”

Section: Epidemiologymentioning

confidence: 99%

‘ Candidatus Neoehrlichia mikurensis’ in Europe

Portillo

Santibáñez

Palomar

et al. 2018

New Microbes and New Infections

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‘Candidatus Neoehrlichia mikurensis’ is an uncultured emerging bacterium that is provisionally included in the family Anaplasmataceae. In Europe, it is transmitted by Ixodes ricinus ticks. Rodents are the reservoirs. It is widely distributed in mammals (both wild and domestic) and birds. It causes an inflammatory disease in humans with underlying diseases, but the microorganism also affects immunocompetent individuals in which asymptomatic infection has been recognized. A high degree of suspicion and the use of molecular tools are needed for the correct diagnosis. Efforts to cultivate it and to investigate its pathogenesis should be a priority.

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Borrelia miyamotoiandCandidatusNeoehrlichia mikurensis inIxodes ricinusTicks, Romania

Cited by 18 publications

References 10 publications

Borrelia Diversity and Co-infection with Other Tick Borne Pathogens in Ticks

Borrelia Diversity and Co-infection with Other Tick Borne Pathogens in Ticks

Canine tick-borne diseases in pet dogs from Romania

‘ Candidatus Neoehrlichia mikurensis’ in Europe

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