ABSTRACT
In the years 2000 and 2001, we sampled ticks in order to establish the distribution of Ixodes ricinus in the province of Belluno; 5987 tick samples from 244 sites throughout the province were gathered, by dragging for a 5-min period. In 40 sites, seasonal variations and cycle stages of the parasites were studied at monthly intervals from March to September. A polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique was used to identify the tick-infected sites. Of 1931 individual ticks, 8.23% were positive for Borrelia burgdorferi, 4.4% were positive for Ehrlichia, 1.6% were positive for Rickettsia, and 1.6% were positive for Babesia. The co-presence of Borrelia and Ehrlichia (1.2%) and Babesia (0.5%), Borrelia, Ehrlichia and Rickettsia (0.1%) was also found.
