Rickettsia aeschlimannii in Spain: molecular evidence in Hyalomma marginatum and five other tick species that feed on humans

Abstract

Rickettsia aeschlimannii is a pathogenic spotted fever group rickettsia first isolated from Hyalomma marginatum ticks collected in Morocco in 1997. Later found in H. marginatum ticks from Zimbabwe, Niger, Mali, and Portugal, R. aeschlimannii has also been found in a Rhipicephalus appendiculatus tick attached to the right thigh of a patient in South Africa. These data suggest a broad geographic distribution for R. aeschlimannii and the possibility that tick species other than H. marginatum may also be suitable vectors for this rickettsia.

Over the past 6 years, throughout the region of Castilla y León, northwestern Spain, we have collected and identified 3,059 ticks belonging to 15 species (unpub. data) that were attached to persons living in this territory. We have systematically analyzed the ticks by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to detect those infected with Borrelia burgdorferi, Anaplasma phagocytophila, and Rickettsia spp. This procedure enabled us to identify, for the first time in Spain, R. aeschlimannii in 35 tick specimens belonging to H. marginatum and to another five species.