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Ticks are becoming increasingly recognised as important vectors of pathogens in urban and peri-urban areas, including green space used for recreational activities. In the UK, the risk posed by ticks in such areas is largely unknown. In order to begin to assess the risk of ticks in urban/peri-urban areas in southern England, questing ticks were collected from five different habitat types (grassland, hedge, park, woodland and woodland edge) in a city during the spring, summer and autumn of 2013/2014 and screened for Borrelia burgdorferisensu lato. In addition, seasonal differences in B. burgdorferis.l. prevalence were also investigated at a single site during 2015. Ixodes ricinuspresence and activity were significantly higher in woodland edge habitat and during spring surveys. DNA of Borrelia burgdorferis.l. was detected in 18.1% of nymphs collected across the 25 sites during 2013 and 2014 and two nymphs also tested positive for the newly emerging tick-borne pathogen B. miyamotoi. Borrelia burgdorferis.l. prevalence at a single site surveyed in 2015 were found to be significantly higher during spring and summer than in autumn, with B. gariniiand B. valaisianamost commonly detected. These data indicate that a range of habitats within an urban area in southern England support ticks and that urban Borreliatransmission cycles may exist in some of the urban green spaces included in this study. Sites surveyed were frequently used by humans for recreational activities, providing opportunity for exposure to Borreliainfected ticks in an urban/peri-urban space that might not be typically associated with tick-borne disease transmission.

Human granulocytic anaplasmosis and tick-borne fever, affecting livestock, are diseases caused by an infection with the bacterium Anaplasma phagocytophilum.Its transmission dynamics between vertebrate hosts and ticks remain largely unknown and the potential impact on public health in the United Kingdom is unclear. This study aimed to assess the distribution and estimate the prevalence of A. phagocytophilumin questing Ixodes ricinusat recreational locations across England and Wales over six years. An additional objective was to investigate possible associations between prevalence, habitat and presence of ruminant hosts. Ixodes ricinusticks were collected each spring at 20 recreational locations across England and Wales between 2014 and 2019. Nymphs were tested for infection with A. phagocytophilumby detection of bacterial genome in DNA extracts, targeting the msp2gene locus. Positive samples were further investigated for the presence of different ecotypes based on the GroELregion. Of 3,919 nymphs tested, the mean infection prevalence was 3.6% [95%CI: 3.1-4.3] and ranged from 0 to 20.4%. Northern England had a higher overall prevalence (4.7% [95%CI: 3.4-6.4]) compared to Southern England (1.8% [95%CI: 1.3-2.5]) and the presence of sheep was associated with higher A. phagocytophilumprevalence (8.4% [95%CI: 6.9-10.1] vs 1.2% [95%CI: 0.8-1.7] when absent). There was also a negative correlation with the prevalence of Borrelia burgdorferis.l. (causing Lyme borreliosis). When investigating the diversity of A. phagocytophilum, ecotype I accounted for 86.8% of samples and ecotype II for 13.2%. Our study presents an overview of A. phagocytophilumprevalence in questing I. ricinusin recreational areas across England and Wales and discusses the potential public and veterinary health relevance.