Prevalence of Ixodes ricinus and possible hybrids of I. ricinus and I. inopinatus on the edible dormouse in a Central European woodland.

Ixodes inopinatus Estrada-Peña, Nava et Petney, 2014 was described in 2014 from the Iberian Peninsula and later reported from Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Germany, Austria and Romania. However, recent studies raised serious doubts about the presence of I. inopinatus in Central Europe and reported hybridisation between the Ixodes ricinus (Linnaeus, 1758) and I. inopinatus. In this study, we selected a locally common rodent host, the edible dormouse Glis glis (Linnaeus) (Rodentia: Gliridae), to study the prevalence of these two tick species and their hybrids in a Central European woodland. The TROSPA nuclear gene and the COI mitochondrial gene were used for tick identification. Overall, 581 dormice were screened and 383 I. ricinus, 17 I. ricinus/inopinatus hybrids and no I. inopinatus were found. Co-infection of I. ricinus and hybrids was found on 11 dormice with the overall prevalence of I. ricinus 28.8% and hybrids 2.5%. Seasonal occurrence of I. ricinus and hybrids reached a peak in August. Edible dormouse males were more frequently infected than females and larvae of both tick taxa greatly outnumbered the nymphs. Detection of a large number of hybrid larvae on this mammal host demonstrates that tick hybridisation likely occurs further north and outside the originally described distribution range of I. inopinatus.