| Summary: | <p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Only limited information is available about the occurrence of ticks and tick-borne pathogens in public parks, which are areas strongly influenced by human beings. For this reason, <it>Ixodes ricinus </it>were collected in public parks of different Bavarian cities in a 2-year survey (2009 and 2010) and screened for DNA of <it>Babesia </it>spp., <it>Rickettsia </it>spp. and <it>Bartonella </it>spp. by PCR. Species identification was performed by sequence analysis and alignment with existing sequences in GenBank. Additionally, coinfections with <it>Anaplasma phagocytophilum </it>were investigated.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The following prevalences were detected: <it>Babesia </it>spp.: 0.4% (n = 17, including one pool of two larvae) in 2009 and 0.5 to 0.7% (n = 11, including one pool of five larvae) in 2010; <it>Rickettsia </it>spp.: 6.4 to 7.7% (n = 285, including 16 pools of 76 larvae) in 2009. DNA of <it>Bartonella </it>spp. in <it>I. ricinus </it>in Bavarian public parks could not be identified. Sequence analysis revealed the following species: <it>Babesia </it>sp. EU1 (n = 25), <it>B. divergens </it>(n = 1), <it>B. divergens/capreoli </it>(n = 1), <it>B. gibsoni</it>-like (n = 1), <it>R. helvetica </it>(n = 272), <it>R. monacensis </it>IrR/Munich (n = 12) and unspecified <it>R. monacensis </it>(n = 1). The majority of coinfections were <it>R. helvetica </it>with <it>A. phagocytophilum </it>(n = 27), but coinfections between <it>Babesia </it>spp. and <it>A. phagocytophilum</it>, or <it>Babesia </it>spp. and <it>R. helvetica </it>were also detected.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p><it>I. ricinus </it>ticks in urban areas of Germany harbor several tick-borne pathogens and coinfections were also observed. Public parks are of particularly great interest regarding the epidemiology of tick-borne pathogens, because of differences in both the prevalence of pathogens in ticks as well as a varying species arrangement when compared to woodland areas. The record of DNA of a <it>Babesia gibsoni</it>-like pathogen detected in <it>I. ricinus </it>suggests that <it>I. ricinus </it>may harbor and transmit more <it>Babesia </it>spp. than previously known. Because of their high recreational value for human beings, urban green areas are likely to remain in the research focus on public health issues.</p>
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