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Associations Between Coinfection Prevalence of Borrelia lusitaniae, Anaplasma sp., and Rickettsia sp. in Hard Ticks Feeding on Reptile Hosts

  • Host Microbe Interactions
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Abstract

An increasing number of studies reveal that ticks and their hosts are infected with multiple pathogens, suggesting that coinfection might be frequent for both vectors and wild reservoir hosts. Whereas the examination of associations between coinfecting pathogen agents in natural host–vector–pathogen systems is a prerequisite for a better understanding of disease maintenance and transmission, the associations between pathogens within vectors or hosts are seldom explicitly examined. We examined the prevalence of pathogen agents and the patterns of associations between them under natural conditions, using a previously unexamined host–vector–pathogen system—green lizards Lacerta viridis, hard ticks Ixodes ricinus, and Borrelia, Anaplasma, and Rickettsia pathogens. We found that immature ticks infesting a temperate lizard species in Central Europe were infected with multiple pathogens. Considering I. ricinus nymphs and larvae, the prevalence of Anaplasma, Borrelia, and Rickettsia was 13.1% and 8.7%, 12.8% and 1.3%, and 4.5% and 2.7%, respectively. The patterns of pathogen prevalence and observed coinfection rates suggest that the risk of tick infection with one pathogen is not independent of other pathogens. Our results indicate that Anaplasma can play a role in suppressing the transmission of Borrelia to tick vectors. Overall, however, positive effects of Borrelia on Anaplasma seem to prevail as judged by higher-than-expected Borrelia–Anaplasma coinfection rates.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Dr. Ján Krištofík for tick determination. Milan Olekšák and the directive of the Slovak Karst National Park provided logistic support. This study was funded by the VEGA grants no. 2/7080/27 and 1/0207/08. The study was conducted under approval from the Ministry of Environment of the Slovak Republic (license no. 1430/467/04-5.1).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Zoology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Dubravska cesta 9, 84506, Bratislava, Slovakia

    Radovan Václav & Pavol Prokop

  2. Virological Institute, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Dubravska cesta 9, 84505, Bratislava, Slovakia

    Martina Ficová & Tatiana Betáková

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  1. Radovan Václav
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  2. Martina Ficová
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Correspondence to Radovan Václav.

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Václav, R., Ficová, M., Prokop, P. et al. Associations Between Coinfection Prevalence of Borrelia lusitaniae, Anaplasma sp., and Rickettsia sp. in Hard Ticks Feeding on Reptile Hosts. Microb Ecol 61, 245–253 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-010-9736-0

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