in Ticks Blood-Feeding on Migratory Birds in Sweden

Migratory birds play a dual role as potential reservoirs of tick-borne pathogens, and potential dispersers of pathogen-containing ticks during their migratory journeys. , a prevalent tick species in Northern and Western Europe, serves as a primary vector for -a bacterium with implications for human and animal health. There is limited information available regarding in birds. Our investigation focused on prevalence in ticks collected from migratory birds in southeastern Sweden. The identification of ticks involved both molecular analyses for species determination and morphological classification to ascertain the developmental stage. The presence of was determined using real-time PCR. Of the 1115 ticks analyzed from 4601 birds, 0.9% ( = 10), including and , tested positive for . Notably, common blackbirds () yielded the highest number of -infected ticks. The findings suggest that is present in a small proportion of ticks infesting migratory birds in southeastern Sweden. Consequently, the role of birds as hosts for ticks infected with appears to be low, suggesting that birds seem to play a minor indirect role in the geographic dispersal of .