BALB/c mice infested with larvae or nymphs of Ixodes ricinus develop in their lymph nodes a T cell-specific immune response triggered by salivary gland soluble antigens (SGA). SGA are apparently conserved in the 3 biological stages of I. ricinus ticks and are species specific. SGA derived from partially fed females I. ricinus stimulate lymph node T cells from mice infested with I. ricinus larva...

Two strains of Ixodes spirochetes, one isolated in the United States (B31) and the other in Sweden (G25), were examined by electron microscopy. Cells of strain G25 were 11-25 micron long with a wavelength of 2.1-2.4 micron and an amplitude of 0.4 micron. Eleven flagella were inserted subterminally at each end of the cell. Cells of strain B31 were similar but had eleven or seven flagella. Cytopl...

Borrelia burgdorferi, the agent of Lyme disease, is transmitted by ticks. During transmission from the tick to the host, spirochetes are delivered with tick saliva, which contains the salivary protein Salp15. Salp15 has been shown to protect spirochetes against B. burgdorferi-specific antibodies. We now show that Salp15 from both Ixodes ricinus and Ixodes scapularis protects serum-sensitive iso...

Figs 2 and 4 are incorrect. The authors have provided corrected versions of each here. Copyright: © 2015 Kotsyfakis et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

A total of 7210 unfed adult Ixodes persulcatus Schulze, 1930 and I. ricinus (L., 1758) ticks were collected from the vegetation by flagging in 35 study sites located in the zone of their sympatry (mainly in Leningrad region, Russia). Borrelia infection in ticks was estimated by the dark-field microscopic analysis of gut contents in standard vital preparations at a magnification of x600. No corr...

UNLABELLED To date, only three rickettsial species have been found in ticks in Slovakia by serological and/or molecular-biological techniques, namely Rickettsia slovaca, Candidatus rickettsia IRS, and Rickettsia raoultii. Recently, we succeeded in isolation of the forth species, Rickettsia helvetica from Ixodes ricinus, the most frequent tick in Slovakia. The isolation, positive for 10% of test...

The presence and distribution of Ehrlichia spp. and Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato was demonstrated among ixodid ticks collected in the Baltic regions of Russia, where Lyme borreliosis is endemic. A total of 3,426 Ixodes ricinus and 1,267 Ixodes persulcatus specimens were collected, and dark-field microscopy showed that 265 (11.5%) I. ricinus and 333 (26.3%) I. persulcatus ticks were positive....

A comparison of the behavioural peculiarities of Ixodes persulcatus Schulze, 1930 (north-western population, Russia) and Ixodes ricinus (L., 1758) from western Russia and Denmark was determined by using two methods. Method 1 involved a sojourn of ticks on vertical plastic sticks and showed that the questing behaviour of I. ricinus nymphs was dependent on temperature and relative humidity (RH). ...

BACKGROUND During their blood meal, ticks secrete a wide variety of proteins that interfere with their host's defense mechanisms. Among these proteins, lipocalins play a major role in the modulation of the inflammatory response. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS Screening a cDNA library in association with RT-PCR and RACE methodologies allowed us to identify 14 new lipocalin genes in the salivar...

A total of 836 unfed Ixodes ricinus ticks were collected from 2 forested areas of the Lublin region in eastern Poland. Of these, 540 ticks were collected in area 'A', exposed to flooding from the Vistula river, while the remaining 296 ticks were collected in suburban area 'B', not exposed to flooding. Ticks were examined by nested-PCR for the presence of DNA of Leptospira spp. and of Borrelia b...