Ticks infesting cattle and humans in the Yungas Biogeographic Province of Argentina, with notes on the presence of tick-borne bacteria.

This study was performed to determine the tick species that infest cattle and humans throughout an altitudinal gradient in the Yungas Biogeographic Province of Argentina. The presence of tick-borne bacteria of the genera <italic>Rickettsia, Ehrlichia</italic> and <italic>Borrelia</italic> in the collected ticks was also evaluated. Samples of ticks parasitizing cattle and humans were carried out in different seasons. Questing ticks (adults and nymphs) were collected from vegetation and analyzed to detect the presence of <italic>Rickettsia, Ehrlichia</italic> and <italic>Borrelia</italic> by a battery of different PCRs. Five species of hard ticks were found parasitizing cattle: <italic>Amblyomma sculptum, Amblyomma tonelliae, Amblyomma hadanii, Haemaphysalis juxtakochi</italic> and <italic>Ixodes pararicinus</italic>. <italic>Amblyomma sculptum</italic> (immature and adults)<italic>, A. tonelliae</italic> (immature and adults), <italic>A. hadanii</italic> (larvae) and one nymph of <italic>I. pararicinus</italic> were found attached to humans. <italic>Rickettsia amblyommatis</italic> was detected in one nymph of <italic>A. hadanii.</italic> DNA of a <italic>Borrelia</italic> genospecies belonging to the <italic>B. burgdorferi</italic> s.l. complex (phylogenetically related to haplotypes previously reported in <italic>Ixodes aragaoi</italic> from Uruguay and <italic>I. pararicinus</italic> from Argentina) was detected in adults of <italic>I. pararicinus. Amblyomma sculptum</italic> and <italic>I. pararicinus</italic> appear to be the tick species more frequent on cattle in the YBP from Argentina, and <italic>A. sculptum</italic> and <italic>A. tonelliae,</italic> were the main ticks found attached to humans. The medical importance of the bacteria of the genus <italic>Rickettsia</italic> and <italic>Borrelia</italic> detected in this work remains unknown. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]