Results of Ixodes Tick-Borne Borreliosis Monitoring in Crimea in 2015–2021

   Introduction: The studies of borreliosis and the official disease registration in Crimea began in the year 2000. An obvious increase in the number of human cases of Ixodes tick-borne borreliosis has been observed since then: 204 cases of Lyme disease were registered in Crimea in 2000–2014 and already 324 cases in the years 2015–2021.
   Objective: To specify reservoirs, vectors and boundaries of natural foci of tick-borne borreliosis in Crimea based on the results of research conducted in 2015–2021.
   Materials and methods: Collection of Ixodes ticks and trapping of small mammals were carried out in all administrative areas in different landscape zones of the Crimea. The field material was delivered to the laboratory, where it was identified, pooled, and investigated using molecular genetic methods. Geoinformation technologies were used to map the results.
   Results and discussion: The majority of positive markers of tick-borne borreliosis were found in pools of Ixodes ticks in the Mountain and Foothill area while positive samples from small mammals were detected in the Steppe part of the peninsula. The dominant species of reservoirs (gen. Crocidura, Cricetulus, Rattus) and vectors (gen. Ixodes) of tick-borne borreliosis in
Crimea in the years 2015–2021 were identified.
   Conclusion: Lyme borreliosis is distributed almost throughout the whole territory of the Crimean Peninsula. A systematic local monitoring of reservoirs and vectors of tick-borne borreliosis is important to clarify the features of activity of natural foci in different natural zones, to determine the diversity of Borrelia species, and to assess the disease risk for humans.

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