Rickettsia slovaca sp. nov., a member of the spotted fever group rickettsiae.

The name Rickettsia slovaca sp. nov. (type strain is strain B) is proposed for a member of the spotted fever group (SFG) rickettsiae which was isolated from Dermacentor marginatus ticks in Slovakia in 1968, and was recently implicated in human febrile illness. This rickettsia can be phenotypically distinguished from other SFG rickettsiae by microimmunofluorescence serotyping, SDS-PAGE, Western blotting and mAbs. Genotypic differences between R. slovaca and the other SFG representatives can be demonstrated by PCR-RFLP analysis, pulsed-field gel electrophoresis and sequencing of 16S rRNA, gltA and ompA genes.