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Granulocytic anaplasmosis is a common vector-borne disease of humans and animals with natural transmission cycle that involves tick vectors, among which Ixodes ricinusis the most important. The present paper reports the prevalence and geographical distribution of A. phagocytophilumin 10,438 questing Ixodes ricinusticks collected at 113 locations from 40 counties of Romania. The unfed ticks were examined for the presence of A. phagocytophilumby PCR targeting a portion of ankA gene. The overall prevalence of infection was 3.42%, with local prevalences ranging between 0.29% and 22.45%, with an average prevalence of 5.39% in the infected localities. The infection with A. phagocytophilumwas detected in 72 out of 113 localities and in 34 out of 40 counties. The highest prevalence was recorded in females followed by males and nymphs. The results and the distribution model have shown a large distribution of A. phagocytophilum, covering Romania's entire territory. This study is the first large scale survey of the presence of A. phagocytophilumin questing I. ricinusticks from Romania.

The paper reports the prevalence and geographical distribution of Borrelia burgdorferisensu lato (s.l.) and its genospecies in 12,221 questing Ixodes ricinusticks collected at 183 locations from all the 41 counties of Romania. The unfed ticks were examined for the presence of B. burgdorferis.l. by PCR targeting the intergenic spacer 5S–23S. Reverse line blot hybridization (RLB) and restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis were performed for identification of B. burgdorferigenospecies. The overall prevalence of infection was 1.4%, with an average local prevalence between 0.75% and 18.8%. B. burgdorferis.l. was found in ticks of 55 of the 183 localities. The overall prevalence B. burgdorferis.l. in ticks in the infected localities was 3.8%. The total infection prevalence was higher in female ticks than in other developmental stages. Three Borreliagenospecies were detected. The most widely distributed genospecies was B. afzelii, followed by B. gariniiand B. burgdorferisensu stricto (s.s.). The study is the first countrywide study and the first report of B. burgdorferis.s. in Romania. The distribution maps show that higher prevalences were recorded in hilly areas, but Lyme borreliosis spirochetes were also present in forested lowlands, albeit with a lower prevalence.