and Species in Ticks Collected from Two Regions of Bulgaria.

The aim of the study was to determine prevalence of -infected ticks in the Black Sea Coast and the Pleven regions of Bulgaria. A total of 350 ticks from different tick species were collected. Two hundred fifty-five ticks were removed from dogs in the Black Sea Coast region, and 95 ticks were collected by flagging vegetation with a white flannel cloth in two areas in the region of Pleven. After the DNA isolation of the ticks, a genus-specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was performed to identify Second PCRs were performed with species-specific primers to identify () and (). The results showed that 26.9% of the ticks were infected with in the Black Sea Coast region and 36.8% in the Pleven region. The infection with was detected in 35.7% and in 25.0% of positive ticks from the Black Sea Coast region. In the Pleven region, 22.9% of ticks were positive for , while 42.9% were positive for . The molecular identification of in ticks collected from Bulgaria was performed for the first time. In conclusion, the present study revealed a higher prevalence of ticks infected with , particularly , in the Pleven region than in the Black Sea Coast region.