Detection of Borrelia DNA in tick species collected from vegetation and wild animals in Fukuoka, Japan.

We surveyed the presence of Borrelia spp. in ticks collected from vegetation by flagging and from wild animals from May 2017 to November 2018 in Fukuoka, located in the northern Kyushu area of Japan. A total of 1,601 ticks were collected and morphologically separated into 9 species: Ixodes turdus, I. ovatus, Amblyomma testudinarium, Haemaphysalis flava, H. formosensis, H. kitaokai, H. longicornis, H. hystricis, and H. megaspinosa. The ticks were segregated into 561 pools and nested PCR was used to detect borrelial DNA. Borrelia turdi and Borrelia sp. HM were identified in two of the 561 pools. This is the first report on the presence of Lyme diseases group of Borrelia and Relapsing fever group of Borrelia in Fukuoka.