Swiss Army survey in Switzerland to determine the prevalence of Francisella tularensis, members of the Ehrlichia phagocytophila genogroup, Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato, and tick-borne encephalitis virus in ticks

A total of 6071 Ixodes ricinus ticks were collected on Swiss Army training grounds in five regions of Switzerland. The aim of the survey was to assess the prevalence of ticks infected with the human pathogens Francisella tula rensis, members of the Ehrlichia phagocytophila genogroup, Borrelia burgdor feri sensu late, and the European tick-borne encephalitis virus. TaqMan PCR (PE Biosystems, USA) and TaqMan RT-PCR (PE Biosystems) analyses were perfo rmed on DNA and RNA extracted from pools of ten ticks grouped by gender. He re, for the first time, it is shown that ticks may harbor Francisella tular ensis in Switzerland, at a rate of 0.12%, Furthermore, 26.54% of the ticks investigated harbored Borrelia burgdorferi sensu late, 1.18% harbored membe rs of the Ehrlichia phagocytophila genogroup, and 0.32% harbored the Europe an tick-borne encephalitis virus. A new instrumentation was applied in this study to carry out and analyze more than 2300 PCR reactions in only 5 days . Furthermore, the results reveal that people working in outdoor areas, inc luding army personnel on certain training grounds contaminated with ticks c ontaining tick-borne pathogens, are at risk for different tick-borne diseas es.