Investigation of Tick-Borne Encephalitis Virus (TBEV) in Ixodid Ticks Collected from Central Black Sea Region in Turkey

Tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV), a member of the genus Flavivirus causes thousands of Tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) cases annually throughout Europe. TBE is an infectious disease involving the central nervous system, which may result in death. TBEV is transmitted to humans by ixodid tick species such as Ixodes ricinus, Ixodes persulcatus and Haemaphysalis concinna. To date, there is no evidence for the presence of TBEV in Turkish ticks. In the present study, presence of TBEV in Ixodid ticks collected from humans in Amasya, Tokat and Ordu provinces was investigated using Revers Transcriptase Polimerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR). A total 918 tick specimens were collected from humans applying health centers with tick bites in Amasya (n=630), Tokat (n=60) and Ordu (n=228), provinces located in Central Black Sea Region. According to RT-PCR results, no TBEV detected in Ixodes ricinus or other ixodid tick species tested in this study. This result indicates that the tick species tested from the region have no potential for transmission of TBEV.