Zubriková et al.
The Impact of Altitude on Tick-Borne Pathogens at Two Mountain Ranges in Central Slovakia. Pathogens. 2024;13(7):586. doi:10.3390/pathogens13070586
Increasing altitude influences the number of ticks in the environment and may also impact the probability of pathogen occurrence within these ticks.
Questing ticks were collected in 2016/17 across various altitudes in central Slovakia, specifically in the Western Carpathians, the Pol’ana Mountains (with a peak altitude of 1,458 m), and Smrekovica Mt. (with a peak altitude of 1,532 m). These ticks were analyzed for various pathogens, including Anaplasma phagocytophilum, Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato, Babesia spp., Theileria spp., Rickettsia spp., and the TBE virus.
Neither altitude nor soil pH had a significant impact on the occurrence of pathogens. The estimated overall pooled prevalence of TBE virus was 0.56% on Pol’ana Mt. and 0.6% on Smrekovica Mt. TBE virus-positive ticks were detected at altitudes of up to 900 m a.s.l. on Pol’ana Mt. and up to 990 m on Smrekovica Mt.