"Candidatus Neoehrlichia mikurensis," Anaplasma phagocytophilum, and lyme disease spirochetes in questing european vector ticks and in feeding ticks removed from people.

ABSTRACT: To estimate the likelihood of people coming into contact with the recently described tick-borne agent "Candidatus Neoehrlichia mikurensis," we compared its prevalence to those of Lyme disease spirochetes and Anaplasma phagocytophilum in questing adult Ixodes ricinus ticks collected in various Central European sites and examined ticks, which had been removed from people, for the presence of these pathogens. Whereas spirochetes infected questing adult ticks most frequently (22.3%), fewer than a third as many ticks were infected by "Ca. Neoehrlichia mikurensis" (6.2%), and about a sixth harbored A. phagocytophilum (3.9%). On average, every twelfth encounter of a person with an I. ricinus tick (8.1%) may bear the risk of acquiring "Ca. Neoehrlichia mikurensis." Although a fifth of the people (

SUBMITTER: Richter D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3295140 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature