First records of tick-borne pathogens in populations of the taiga tick Ixodes persulcatus in Sweden

Parasites & Vectors

Table 2 Prevalence of Borrelia species in Ixodes persulcatus ticks (and one Ixodes ricinus nymph) collected by cloth-dragging method

Location	Stage^a	No. of ticks examined	No. (%) of positive ticks	No. (%) of positive ticks containing Borrelia species determined by nucleotide sequencing
Location	Stage^a	No. of ticks examined	No. (%) of positive ticks	B. afzelii	B. garinii	B. valaisiana	Mixed	Untypeable
Axelsvik	AM	1	0
	AF	1	0
	N	1	0
Båtskärsnäs	AM	2	0
Seskarö	AF	1	0
Stora Hamnskär	AM	1	0
Västra Knivskär	AM	18	3 (17)		1 (33)		1 (33)	1 (33)
	AF	16^c	2 (13)	1 (50)	1 (50)
	N	8^b	3 (43)	1 (33)				2 (66)
Östra Knivskär	N	2^c	0
Ytterstlandet	AM	114	71 (62)	30 (42)	29 (40)	1 (2)	1 (2)	10 (14)
	AF	108	71 (66)	37 (52)	21 (30)			13 (18)
	N	4	2 (50)	1 (50)	1 (50)
All locations	AM	136	74 (54)	30 (41)	30 (41)	1 (1)	2 (2)	11 (15)
	AF	126	73 (58)	38 (52)	22 (30)			13 (18)
	N	15	5 (33)	2 (40)	1 (20)			2 (40)
Total no. of specimens		277	152 (55)	70 (46)	53 (35)	1 (1)	2 (1)	26 (17)

^aTick developmental stage: AM, adult male; AF, adult female; N, nymph
^bOne nymph in this group was morphologically and molecularly identified as Ixodes ricinus. This nymph was negative for Borrelia
^cOne adult female from Västra Knivskär was positive for Rickettsia helvetica and one nymph from Östra Knivskär was positive for Rickettsia sp. Both Rickettsia-positive ticks were negative for Borrelia

ISSN: 1756-3305