Ticks and Tick-borne Diseases 6 (2015) 559–567 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Ticks and Tick-borne Diseases j ourna l h o me page: w ww.elsevier.com/locate/ttbdis Original article Ticks and tick-borne pathogens in South Bohemia (Czech Republic) – Spatial variability in Ixodes ricinus abundance, Borrelia burgdorferi and tick-borne encephalitis virus prevalence V. Hönig a,b,∗ , P. Svec c , P. Halas d , Z. Vavruskova a,b , H. Tykalova a,b , P. Kilian a,b , V. Vetiskova a,b , V. Dornakova a,b , J. Sterbova a,b , Z. Simonova a,b , J. Erhart b , J. Sterba a,b , M. Golovchenko b , N. Rudenko b , L. Grubhoffer a,b a Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Branisovska 31, 370 05 Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic b Institute of Parasitology, Biology Centre, AS CR, Branisovska 31, 370 05 Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic c Institute of Geoinformatics, VSB – Technical University of Ostrava, 17. listopadu 15, 708 03 Ostrava – Poruba, Czech Republic d Institute of Geonics, AS CR, Drobneho 28, 602 00 Brno, Czech Republic a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 21 October 2014 Received in revised form 19 April 2015 Accepted 20 April 2015 Available online 27 April 2015 Keywords: Tick Ixodes ricinus Lyme borreliosis Tick-borne encephalitis Environmental factors GIS a b s t r a c t Spatial distribution of Ixodes ricinus tick host-seeking activity, as well as prevalence of Borrelia burgdor- feri sensu lato and tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) were studied in the TBE endemic area of South Bohemia (Czech Republic). High variability in tick abundance detected in a network of 30 study sites was most closely associated with characteristics of vegetation cover. Of 11,182 tested tick samples, 12% carried DNA of spirochete from B. burgdorferi s.l. complex. B. afzelii and B. garinii prevailed among spiro- chete species. The presence of B. spielmanii in the region was confirmed. The median number of borrelial genome copies in positive samples reached 6.6 × 10 3 by real-time PCR. The total prevalence of TBEV in pooled samples reached 0.32% (20,057 samples tested), at least one TBEV positive tick was present in 21 out of 30 sampling sites. © 2015 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved. Introduction Concerning the distribution of human tick-borne diseases, the hard tick Ixodes ricinus is the most important recognized vector of tick borne pathogens in (Central) Europe. This tick species inhabits an extensive area reaching from Ireland to western parts of Rus- sia and from Scandinavia to North Africa. It is the major vector of the causative agents of Lyme borreliosis (spirochetes of the Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato complex), tick-borne encephalitis (tick-borne encephalitis virus), human granulocytic anaplasmosis (Anaplasma phagocytophilum), babesiosis (Babesia divergens, B. microti), some other less frequent human diseases and pathogens of veterinary importance (Charrel et al., 2004; Parola and Raoult, 2001). With an annual number of over 85 thousand cases of Lyme borreliosis and almost 2900 cases of tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) (ECDC Meeting ∗ Corresponding author at: Cecova 668/8, Ceske Budejovice 370 04, Czech Republic. Tel.: +420 721 122 704; fax: +420 385 310 388. E-mail address: honigva@gmail.com (V. Hönig). report, 2012) these two diseases are the vector-borne diseases with largest impact on human health in Europe. In the last decades ticks and tick-borne pathogens have received increasing attention, both from experts (medical, scien- tific) and general public. Concerning eco-epidemiological studies the research interest has focused mainly on estimation of tick activ- ity, prevalence of tick-borne pathogens (including meta-analysis) and subsequently, efforts to identify the key factors, that determine the above mentioned parameters and might be used for disease risk prediction (e.g. Hubalek et al., 2003; Medlock et al., 2013; Schwarz et al., 2009, 2012; Swei et al., 2011). In Europe, such studies focus mainly on variability in time, following few local tick populations for several years. Apart from EDEN and EDENext projects, which cover almost whole Europe, studies that take into consideration multiple sampling sites and the spatial variability in tick and tick- borne pathogen abundance are scarce in Central Europe (Altobelli et al., 2008; James et al., 2013; Nazzi et al., 2010; Rizzoli et al., 2002). To fill the gaps in this field we collected the data in a typical central European tick-borne disease endemic area – the region of South Bohemia in the Czech Republic. An annual average of 23.3 TBE disease cases per 100,000 inhabitants is registered in this region http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ttbdis.2015.04.010 1877-959X/© 2015 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.