title: High-throughput screening of tick-borne pathogens in Europe.
abstract: Due to increased travel, climatic, and environmental changes, the incidence of tick-borne disease in both humans and animals is increasing throughout Europe. Therefore, extended surveillance tools are desirable. To accurately screen tick-borne pathogens (TBPs), a large scale epidemiological study was conducted on 7050 Ixodes ricinus nymphs collected from France, Denmark, and the Netherlands using a powerful new high-throughput approach. This advanced methodology permitted the simultaneous detection of 25 bacterial, and 12 parasitic species (including; Borrelia, Anaplasma, Ehrlichia, Rickettsia, Bartonella, Candidatus Neoehrlichia, Coxiella, Francisella, Babesia, and Theileria genus) across 94 samples. We successfully determined the prevalence of expected (Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato, Anaplasma phagocytophilum, Rickettsia helvetica, Candidatus Neoehrlichia mikurensis, Babesia divergens, Babesia venatorum), unexpected (Borrelia miyamotoi), and rare (Bartonella henselae) pathogens in the three European countries. Moreover we detected Borrelia spielmanii, Borrelia miyamotoi, Babesia divergens, and Babesia venatorum for the first time in Danish ticks. This surveillance method represents a major improvement in epidemiological studies, able to facilitate comprehensive testing of TBPs, and which can also be customized to monitor emerging diseases.
authors.affiliation: UMR BIPAR, Animal Health Laboratory, ANSES Maisons-Alfort, France.
authors.forename: Lorraine
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Michelet
authors.affiliation: IdentyPath Platform, Food Safety Laboratory, ANSES Maisons-Alfort, France.
authors.forename: Sabine
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Delannoy
authors.affiliation: UMR BIPAR, Animal Health Laboratory, ANSES Maisons-Alfort, France.
authors.forename: Elodie
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Devillers
authors.affiliation: Nancy Laboratory for Rabies and Wildlife, Wildlife EcoEPIdemiology and Surveillance Unit, ANSES Malzéville, France.
authors.forename: Gérald
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Umhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Bacteriology, National Veterinary Institute (SVA) Uppsala, Sweden.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Aspan
authors.affiliation: Department of Virology, Immunobiology and Parasitology, National Veterinary Institute (SVA) Uppsala, Sweden.
authors.forename: Mikael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Juremalm
authors.affiliation: Department of Virology, Immunobiology and Parasitology, National Veterinary Institute (SVA) Uppsala, Sweden.
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chirico
authors.affiliation: Department of Infection Biology, Central Veterinary Institute, Wageningen UR Lelystad, Netherlands.
authors.forename: Fimme J
authors.initials: FJ
authors.lastname: van der Wal
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Zoonoses and Environmental Microbiology, National Institute for Public Health and Environment (RIVM) Bilthoven, Netherlands.
authors.forename: Hein
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sprong
authors.affiliation: National Veterinary Institute, DTU Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Thomas P
authors.initials: TP
authors.lastname: Boye Pihl
authors.affiliation: National Veterinary Institute, DTU Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Kirstine
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Klitgaard
authors.affiliation: National Veterinary Institute, DTU Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Rene
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bødker
authors.affiliation: IdentyPath Platform, Food Safety Laboratory, ANSES Maisons-Alfort, France.
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Fach
authors.affiliation: UMR BIPAR, Animal Health Laboratory, ANSES Maisons-Alfort, France.
authors.forename: Sara
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Moutailler
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D019295:Computational Biology; D003718:Denmark / Q000453:epidemiology; D005060:Europe / Q000453:epidemiology; D005602:France / Q000453:epidemiology; D059014:High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing; D057166:High-Throughput Screening Assays; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009426:Netherlands / Q000453:epidemiology; D015995:Prevalence; D062486:Public Health Surveillance; D060888:Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D017282:Tick-Borne Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000635:transmission; D013987:Ticks / Q000382:microbiology*
keywords: Europe; microfluidic analyses; molecular epidemiology; surveillance; tick borne diseases