title: Molecular survey of tick-borne pathogens in Ixodid ticks collected from hunted wild animals in Tuscany, Italy.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine the prevalence of zoonotic tick-borne bacteria in feeding ticks removed from hunted wild animals.
  
  
  METHODS
  PCR was executed on DNA extracted from 77 tick pools to detect Anaplasma phagocytophilum, Bartonella spp., Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato, Coxiella burnetii and Rickettsia spp.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 432 ticks were collected: 30 (6.94%) Haemaphysalis punctata, 72 (16.7%) Dermacentor marginatus and 330 (76.38%) Ixodes ricinus. For each animal one or two pools of 3 ticks of the same species was constituted. Seventy-seven tick pools were examined by PCR: 58 (75.32%) resulted infected and among them 14 (18.18%) showed co-infections. In particular, 29 (37.66%) pools were positive for Bartonella spp., 23 (29.87%) for Anaplasma phagocytophilum, 16 (20.78%) for Rickettsia spp., and 5 (6.49%) for Borrelia burgdorferi s.l. All samples were negative for Coxiella burnetii.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results demonstrate the presence of several zoonotic tick-borne pathogens in the studied area, and underline the risk of exposure to infections for hunters not only during the outdoor activity, but also when they manipulate hunted animals infested by infected ticks.
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterinary Science, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy. Electronic address: valentina.virginia.ebani@unipi.it.
authors.forename: Valentina Virginia
authors.initials: VV
authors.lastname: Ebani
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterinary Science, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
authors.forename: Fabrizio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Bertelloni
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterinary Science, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Turchi
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterinary Science, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
authors.forename: Dario
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Filogari
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterinary Science, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
authors.forename: Domenico
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Cerri
keywords: Hunters; Ixodid ticks; PCR; Tick-borne bacteria; Wild animals