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Anaplasma phagocytophilumand spotted fever group Rickettsiaare obligate intracellular Gram-negative tick-borne bacteria, among which several may cause clinical infections in humans. Several Rickettsiaspp. and A. phagocytophilumare transmitted in Europe by Ixodes ricinus, the most common tick species feeding on humans in this area. The aim of this study was to evaluate the annual prevalence of Rickettsiaspp. and A. phagocytophilumin I. ricinuscollected from humans during three consecutive years.

Granulocytic anaplasmosis is a common vector-borne disease of humans and animals with natural transmission cycle that involves tick vectors, among which Ixodes ricinusis the most important. The present paper reports the prevalence and geographical distribution of A. phagocytophilumin 10,438 questing Ixodes ricinusticks collected at 113 locations from 40 counties of Romania. The unfed ticks were examined for the presence of A. phagocytophilumby PCR targeting a portion of ankA gene. The overall prevalence of infection was 3.42%, with local prevalences ranging between 0.29% and 22.45%, with an average prevalence of 5.39% in the infected localities. The infection with A. phagocytophilumwas detected in 72 out of 113 localities and in 34 out of 40 counties. The highest prevalence was recorded in females followed by males and nymphs. The results and the distribution model have shown a large distribution of A. phagocytophilum, covering Romania's entire territory. This study is the first large scale survey of the presence of A. phagocytophilumin questing I. ricinusticks from Romania.

Borrelia burgdorferisensu lato and Anaplasma phagocytophilumare two tick-borne pathogens of medical and/or veterinary importance which are distributed worldwide. Erinaceus roumanicus, the Northern white-breasted hedgehog, is a common synanthropic species that is known to carry not only the hedgehog tick, Ixodes hexagonus, but also I. ricinus, the most common European tick species. I. ricinusis the main vector of both mentioned pathogens. Within this framework and because only limited information is available on the role of E. roumanicusin the ecology of B. burgdorferis.l. and Anaplasma phagocytophilumin Europe, we carried out an epidemiological surveillance on this species in Romania. From the 57 examined hedgehogs collected in 12 different counties, 24 presented tick infestation. Most ticks (n=959) were morphologically identified as larvae, nymphs, or adults of I. ricinus. The prevalence of B. burgdorferis.l. was 0.4%, and that of A. phagocytophilum12%. In all positive cases for B. burgdorferis.l., restriction fragment length polymorphism revealed the genospecies B. afzelii. In Romania, only limited information is available on the epidemiology of B. burgdorferis.l. and A. phagocytophilum. As hedgehogs commonly share the same environment with humans and other potential reservoir hosts for tick-borne pathogens, our study provides new epidemiological data of public health importance.

Canine vector-borne diseases are caused by pathogens transmitted by arthropods including ticks, mosquitoes and sand flies. Many canine vector-borne diseases are of zoonotic importance. This study aimed to assess the prevalence of vector-borne infections caused by Dirofilaria immitis, Ehrlichia canis, Borrelia burgdorferisensu lato, Anaplasmaspp. and Leishmania infantumin a dog kennel in Argeș County, Romania. Dog kennels are shelters for stray dogs with no officially registered owners that are gathered to be neutered and/or boarded for national/international adoptions by various public or private organizations. The international dog adoptions might represent a risk in the transmission of pathogens into new regions. In this context, a total number of 149 blood samples and 149 conjunctival swabs from asymptomatic kennel dogs were assessed using serology and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. Antibodies against B. burgdorferis.l. were detected in one dog (0.6%), anti-Anaplasmaantibodies were found in five dogs (3.3%), while ten dogs (6.7%) tested positive for D. immitisantigen. Overall, 20.1% (30/149) of dogs were positive for L. infantumDNA. All samples were seronegative for anti-Leishmaniaantibodies. When adopting dogs from this region of Romania, owners should be aware of possible infection with especially L. infantum. The travel of infected dogs may introduce the infection to areas where leishmaniasis is not present.