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Abstract
Thirty ticks collected in Kokkola coastal region (64°N, 23°E) in 2004 were identified as Ixodes persulcatus Schulze and studied for the presence of tick-borne pathogens and exoskeletal anomalies. One of the ticks was positive for tick-borne encephalitis virus. Ticks positive for several species of Borrelia were also detected, including B. afzelii (n = 12), B. garinii (n = 7), B. burgdorferi sensu stricto (n = 2), some other species of B. burgdorferi sensu lato group (n = 3), Ehrlichia muris (n =5) and Babesia microti (n = 1). The total proportion of infected ticks was 63% (19 of 30), of which 12 were multiply infected. Forty percent of the ticks had exoskeletal anomalies, and these ticks had more multiple infections (6/12) than morphologically normal ones (6/18). In conclusion, this small sample size suggests that several important tick-borne pathogens apparently circulate in the newly detected focus of I. persulcatus in the Kokkola region. The results warrant further epidemiological studies on the incidence and prevalence of tick-borne diseases and on mapping the distribution of different Ixodes species in Finland.