Journal Article

First identification of Rickettsia helvetica in questing ticks from a French Northern Brittany Forest

Thanks are due to Sylvain Langlois and Etienne Fillol who contributed to tick collection. Thanks are also due to the “Tiques et Maladies à Tiques” group (REID—Réseau Ecologie des Interactions Durables) for stimulating discussion, Bonnet, Sarah I, Le Naour, Evelyne, Bischoff, Emmanuel, Paul, Richard E L, Génétique fonctionnelle des Maladies infectieuses - Functional Genetics of Infectious Diseases ; Institut Pasteur [Paris] (IP)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Cote, Martine, Biologie moléculaire et immunologie parasitaires et fongiques (BIPAR) ; École nationale vétérinaire d'Alfort (ENVA)-Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)-Laboratoire de santé animale, sites de Maisons-Alfort et de Normandie ; Agence nationale de sécurité sanitaire de l'alimentation, de l'environnement et du travail (ANSES)-Agence nationale de sécurité sanitaire de l'alimentation, de l'environnement et du travail (ANSES)-Université Paris-Est Créteil Val-de-Marne - Paris 12 (UPEC UP12), The authors

2017

Overview

Tick-borne rickettsiae are considered to be emerging, but data about their presence in western Europe are scarce. Ixodes ricinus ticks, the most abundant and widespread tick species in western Europe, were collected and tested for the presence of several tick-borne pathogens in western France, a region never previously explored in this context. There was a high tick abundance with a mean of 4 females, 4.5 males, and 23.3 nymphs collected per hour per collector. Out of 622 tested ticks, specific PCR amplification showed the presence of tick symbionts as well as low prevalence of Borrelia burgdorferi (0.8%), Bartonella spp. (0.17%), and Anaplasma phagocytophilum (0.09%). The most prevalent pathogen was Rickettsia helvetica (4.17%). This is the first time that this bacteria has been detected in ticks in this region, and this result raises the possibility that bacteria other than those classically implicated may be involved in rickettsial diseases in western France.

• Publisher: CCSD,Public Library of Science,Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subject: Abundance / Agriculture / Agronomy / Amplification / Anaplasma phagocytophilum / Anaplasma phagocytophilum - genetics / Anaplasma phagocytophilum - isolation & purification / Animals / Antibodies / Arachnids / Arthropods / Bacteria / Bartonella / Bartonella - genetics / Bartonella - isolation & purification / Biology and Life Sciences / Bites / Borrelia burgdorferi / Borrelia burgdorferi - genetics / Borrelia burgdorferi - isolation & purification / Cardiac muscle / Circulation / Climatology / Controlled conditions / Coronary artery / Deer / Disease transmission / Ecology, environment / Endosymbionts / Environmental changes / Environmental Sciences / Exanthema / Exposure / Female / Fever / Forests / France / Geographical distribution / Global Changes / Halos / Heart / Identification and classification / Incidence / Infectious diseases / Insect bites / Insects / Ixodes / Ixodes - microbiology / Life Sciences / Male / Medicine and Health Sciences / Meningitis / Microbiology / Microbiology and Parasitology / Neuromuscular junctions / Nymph / Nymph - microbiology / Parasites / Parasitology / Pathogens / People and Places / Pericardium / Phylogeny / Polymerase Chain Reaction / Populations / Public health / Research and Analysis Methods / Rickettsia / Rickettsia - genetics / Rickettsia - isolation & purification / Rickettsia helvetica / Rocky Mountain spotted fever / Santé publique et épidémiologie / Sarcoidosis / Seroconversion / Symbionts / Ticks / Tropical diseases / Vectors / Vectors (Biology) / Zoonoses
• ISBN: 0004022513, 9780004022512