Tick-Borne Bacterial Pathogens In Czech Urban Environments: First Results Of The Surveillance Project

The project “Tick-borne bacterial diseases in urban environments: where does the real danger lurk” thus aims to study the tick abundance and prevalence of the selected tick-borne pathogens (TBP) in all regions across the Czech Republic. In this project, the three sites in Praha, České Budějovice, and Ostrava are sampled monthly. Also, the urban or suburban areas in the other ten regional capitals are monitored once a year. The first results from 2023 showed significant effect of locality on both tick abundance and bacterial pathogens composition. The tick abundance also varied between the individual transects within the locality. The prevalence of the bacterial TBP in the captured ticks ranged 41-52 %. Borrelia burgdorferi s.l. was shown to be major TBP at all localities with the exception of Ostrava, where Anaplasma phagocytophilum dominated. Furthermore, other TBPs such as Rickettsia spp., Neoehrlichia mikurensis and B. miyamotoi were detected in the collected ticks. To generate a comprehensive dataset capable of assessing annual and seasonal variations in both tick populations and TBP prevalence, data collection at the selected urban areas will continue annually through 2026.