The enzootic life-cycle of Borrelia burgdorferi (sensu lato) and tick-borne rickettsiae: an epidemiological study on wild-living small mammals and their ticks from Saxony, Germany

Table 3 Prevalence of Borrelia burgdorferi (s.l.) and Rickettsia spp. in small mammals collected from 2012 to 2014 in Saxony, Germany

Small mammal species	No. of small mammals captured	No. of small mammals positive for Rickettsia spp. by qPCR (%)	No. of small mammals positive for Borrelia spp. by qPCR (%)	No. of samples selected for identification of Borrelia spp. (MLST)	No. of samples selected for identification of Rickettsia spp. (ompB)	Species identification for Rickettsia spp.
Apodemus flavicollis	214	50 (23.4)	64 (25.4)	0	5	4× R. helvetica; 1× R. felis
Apodemus agrarius	7	0 (0)	3 (42.9)	0	0
Myodes glareolus	435	114	143 (32.9)	5 (4× ST 165; 1× ST 559)	12^a	5× R. raoultii; 5× R. helvetica
Microtus arvalis	8	0 (0)	5 (62.5)	0	0
Other^b	9	0 (0)	0 (0)	0	0
Total	673	170 (25.3)	210 (31.2)	5	12	9× R. helvetica; 1× R. felis; 5× R. raoultii

^aTwo samples could not be further determined, amplification was not possible by conventional with the target gene ompB
^bOther: Mustela nivalis (n = 2); Sorex araneus (n = 5); Talpa europaea (n = 1); Microtus agrestis (n = 1)

ISSN: 1756-3305