LETTERS

7. Tonteri E, Jääskeläinen AE, Tikkakoski T, necrosis and erythema lymphadenop- process, making an exact morphologic Voutilainen L, Niemimaa J, Henttonen H, athy (3). Low prevalence of another evaluation impossible. et al. -borne encephalitis virus in wild rodents in winter, Finland, 2008–2009. tick-borne lymphadenopathy agent, R. DNA was isolated from the com- Emerg Infect Dis. 2011;17:72–75. slovaca, in Dermacentor marginatus plete tick body by homogenization in 8. Tuomi J, Brummer-Korvenkontio M. collected in southern Germany the SpeedMill (Analytik Jena Biosolu- Antibodies against viruses of the tick- was recently reported (4). tions, Jena, Germany) followed by pu- borne encephalitis group in cattle sera in Finland. Ann Med Exp Biol Fenn. We report the detection in Germa- rifi cation by RapideStripe tick DNA/ 1965;43:149–54. ny of the pathogenic SFG species R. RNA Extraction Kit (Analytik Jena 9. Randolph SE, Rogers DJ. Fragile transmis- aeshlimannii (1), which is phylogenet- Biosolutions). Multispacer typing (5) sion cycles of tick-borne encephalitis vi- ically close to R. raoultii and causes was used for molecular detection and rus may be disrupted by predicted climate change. Proc Biol Sci. 2000;267:1741–4. an infection with clinical signs similar determination of Rickettsia spp. (Fig- DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2000.1204 to those of Mediterranean spotted fe- ure). DNA sequencing and analysis 10. Lukan M, Bullova E, Petko B. Climate ver (1). To determine the prevalence were performed as described (Figure). warming and tick-borne encephalitis, Slo- of R. raoultii in the ticks in Berlin/ In 51.3% of the intact tick isolates, vakia. Emerg Infect Dis. 2010;16:524–6. DOI: 10.3201/eid1603.081364 Brandenburg and neighboring re- R. raoultii was detected. In each of the gions, we collected 294 ticks; 288 had 3 damaged isolates, the multispacer Address for correspondence: Anu E. been collected either from vegetation type pattern was detected, which was Jääskeläinen, Department of Virology, Haartman or domestic and morphologi- 100% identical to that of R. aeschli- Institute, PO Box 21 FI-00014, University of cally identifi ed as adult D. reticulatus mannii (5) (Figure). Moreover, PCR, Helsinki, Helsinki 00014, Finland; email: anu. ticks. The remaining 6 ticks were de- which we routinely use as a positive jaaskelainen@helsinki.fi livered by an ornithologist who had control for molecular identifi cation of removed them from a bird (belonging D. reticulatus, yielded no product in to the Acrocephalus scirpaceus spp.) the damaged isolates (Figure). that he had captured in the reeds near To determine the species of the Pakendorf and Zerbst, Saxony-Anhalt, damaged ticks, we used 3 tick-specifi c in May 2007. These 6 ticks were re- PCRs. One amplifi ed a 16S rRNA frag- ported as D. reticulatus–like adults ment used for phylogenetic studies of but were damaged in the collection ticks (6). Use of the other 2 PCRs was Rickettsia aeschlimannii in marginatum Ticks, Germany To the Editor: Rickettsia spp. of the spotted fever group cause world- wide emerging human infections known as tick-borne rickettsioses (1). Data on the occurrence and prevalence of Rickettsia in Germany are still lim- ited (2). Six Rickettsia species have been reported to date (2). R. helvetica, Figure. Illustration of multispacer typing. Amplicons 1–4 result from PCRs on DNA obtained R. felis, R. massiliae, and R. mona- from 1 Rickettsia raoultii–infected Dermacentor reticulatus tick isolate; lanes 5–8 result censis were detected with a relatively from PCRs on 1 damaged isolate. PCRs amplifying dksA-xerC (lanes 1 and 5), mppA- low prevalence in Ixodes ricinus ticks purC (lanes 2 and 6), and rpmE-tRNA (lanes 3 and 7) intergenic spacers were performed collected in southern Germany (2); R. as described (5). PCR amplifying the entire internal transcribed factor 2 (ITS2) locus of D. reticulatus tick (lanes 4 and 8) was involved in each PCR run as a positive control and raoultii was identifi ed with high prev- for validation of D. reticulatus tick identity (the primers will be described elsewhere).The alence in the rapidly expanding area negative result of ITS2 PCR with the damaged isolates (lane 8) indicated that they are not where D. reticulatus ticks are found D. reticulatus ticks. Lane M, DNA size marker (100-bp ladder). PCR products were directly (2). R. raoultii was recently recog- sequenced in both directions with respective primers by an ABI PRISM DNA Sequencer nized as an agent of tick-borne lymph- (Applied Biosystems, Foster City, CA, USA). DNA Star package (DNA Star, Madison, WI, USA) and the tools offered by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (www. adenopathy/Dermacentor-borne ncbi.nlm.nih.gov) were used for DNA search and analysis.

Emerging Infectious Diseases • www.cdc.gov/eid • Vol. 17, No. 2, February 2011 325 LETTERS based on the consideration that R. ae- mongolitimonae (10). Until now, the 5. Fournier PE, Raoult D. Identifi cation of schlimannii is usually found in ticks of role of migrating birds in distribu- rickettsial isolates at the species level us- ing multi-spacer typing. BMC Microbiol. the genus Hyalomma, primarily in H. tion of tick-borne pathogens has been 2007;7:72. DOI: 10.1186/1471-2180-7-72 marginatum (1). Therefore, 1 of the poorly understood (9). The changing 6. Caporale DA, Rich SM, Spielman A, Tel- PCRs amplifi ed a fragment of the Hya- climate and environment in central ford SR 3rd, Kocher TD. Discriminating lomma tick mitochondrial cytochrome Europe may facilitate the establish- between Ixodes ticks by means of mito- chondrial DNA sequences. Mol Phylo- oxidase I gene and the other a fragment ment of pathogen-carrying tick spe- genet Evol. 1995;4:361–5. of the internal transcribed spacer 2 (7). cies transported by birds. These new 7. Rees DJ, Dioli M, Kirkendall LR. Mole- The ITS2 fragment displayed the pathogens can be directly transmitted cules and morphology: evidence for cryp- highest (99%) similarity with the re- from infected birds to the species of tic hybridization in African Hyalomma (: ). Mol Phylogenet Evol. spective fragment of H. marginatum, the local fauna. 2003;27:131–42. H. dromedarii, H. truncatum, and H. 8. Shpynov S, Rudakov N, Tohkov Y, Ma- lusitanicum. Cytochrome oxidase sub- Acknowledgment tushchenko A, Tarasevich I, Raoult D, et al. Clin Microbiol Infect. 2009;15(Sup- unit I fragment was 99% identical to We thank Yuliya Dobrydneva for crit- pl 2):S315–6. Detection of Rickettsia H. marginatum, H. dromedarii, and ical reading of the manuscript. aeschlimannii in Hyalomma margin- H. truncatum. The 16S RNA fragment atum ticks in western Russia. DOI: was 98% identical to H. marginatum; 10.1111/j.1469-0691.2008.02256.x Leonid Rumer, Elmara Graser, its identity to the second closest se- 9. Kampen H, Poltz W, Hartelt K, Wölfel Timo Hillebrand, R, Faulde M. Detection of a questing quence belonging to H. lusitanicum Thomas Talaska, Hans Dautel, Hyalomma marginatum marginatum adult was 96%. Oleg Mediannikov, female (Acari, Ixodidae) in southern Ger- Earlier, R. aeschlimannii had been many. Exp Appl Acarol. 2007;43:227–31. Panchali Roy-Chowdhury, detected in sub-Saharan and North Af- DOI: 10.1007/s10493-007-9113-y Olga Sheshukova, 10. Raoult D, Roux V. Rickettsioses as para- rica, southern Europe, and southwest- Oliver Donoso Mantke, digms of new or emerging infectious dis- ern Russia (8). Therefore, the area of and Matthias Niedrig eases. Clin Microbiol Rev. 1997;10:694– Zerbst, the middle of Germany, marks 719. Author affi liations: Robert Koch Institut, the northernmost point of R. aeschli- Berlin, Germany (L. Rumer, P. Roy-Chow- mannii detection. Address for correspondence: Thomas dhury, O. Sheshukova, O. Donoso Mantke, Hyalomma spp. ticks are distrib- Talaska, Facharzt für Mikrobiologie und M. Niedrig); AJInnuscreen GmbH, Berlin uted in Africa, the Mediterranean cli- Infektionsepidemiologie, Georg-Schacht Str 23, (E. Graser, T. Hillebrand); Practice for Mi- matic zone of southern Europe, and in 15295 Brieskow-Finkenheerd, Germany; email: crobiology and Epidemiology of Infectious Asia. The only documented Hyalomma [email protected] Diseases, Lindow, Germany (T. Talaska); IS spp. tick in Germany was found on a Insect Services GmbH, Berlin (H. Dautel); human in the southern part of the coun- and Université de la Méditerranée, Mar- try (Lake Constance area) in May 2006, seille, France (O. Mediannikov) but the possibility of tick transportation from Spain was not ruled out (9). DOI: 10.3201/eid1702.100308 Acrocephalus scirpaceus birds are migratory birds and live in central References Dogs as Reservoirs Europe from April to October and win- 1. Parola P, Paddock C, Raoult D. Tick-borne for Leishmania ter in sub-Saharan Africa in the region rickettsioses around the world: emerging inhabited by Hyalomma spp. ticks. diseases challenging old concepts. Clin braziliensis Therefore, it is reasonable to suggest Microbiol Rev. 2005;18:719–56. DOI: that the Hyalomma spp. ticks that we 10.1128/CMR.18.4.719-756.2005 To the Editor: I have read the re- examined had been transported by the 2. Dobler G, Wölfel R. Typhus and oth- view by Sousa and Pearson (1), which er rickettsioses. Dtsch Arztebl Int. provides a fascinating historical ac- birds from Africa. The fact that a ran- 2009;106:348–54. domly caught bird was infested with 3. Parola P, Rovery C, Rolain JM, Brouqui P, count of the Great Drought and the R. aeshlimannii–infected ticks is sug- Davoust B, Raoult D. Rickettsia slovaca smallpox epidemic of the 1870s and gestive of the intensive stream of new and R. raoultii in tick-borne rickettsioses. their association with the emergence Emerg Infect Dis. 2009;15:1105–8. DOI: of cutaneous leishmaniasis in Ceará, pathogens transported through Europe 10.3201/eid1507.081449 by migrating birds. The fi rst possible 4. Pluta S, Tewald F, Hartelt K, Oehme R, Brazil. In their review, the authors implication of a bird as a vector of in- Kimmig P, Mackenstedt U. Rickettsia slo- went back to the 19th century, remem- fected ticks was proposed for Hyalom- vaca in Dermacentor marginatus ticks, bering the hard years experienced by Germany. Emerg Infect Dis. 2009;15:2077– those who faced the Great Drought, ma spp. ticks infected by R. sibirica 8. DOI: 10.3201/eid1512.090843

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