The incidence of tick-borne diseases caused by Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato, Anaplasma phagocytophilum and Rickettsia spp. has been rising in Europe in recent decades. Early pre-assessment of acarological hazard still represents a complex challenge. The aim of this study was to model Ixodes ricinus questing nymph density and its infection rate with B. burgdorferi s.l., A. phagocytophilum and Rickettsia spp. in five European countries (Italy, Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary) in various land cover types differing in use and anthropisation (agricultural, urban and natural) with climatic and environmental factors (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI), Land Surface Temperature (LST) and precipitation). We show that the relative abundance of questing nymphs was significantly associated with climatic conditions, such as higher values of NDVI recorded in the sampling period, while no differences were observed among land use categories. However, the density of infected nymphs (DIN) also depended on the pathogen considered and land use. These results contribute to a better understanding of the variation in acarological hazard for Ixodes ricinus transmitted pathogens in Central Europe and provide the basis for more focused ecological studies aimed at assessing the effect of land use in different sites on tick-host pathogens interaction.

Avia GIS Risschotlei 33 2980 Zoersel Belgium

Comparative Tropical Medicine and Parasitology Ludwig Maximilians Universität 80802 Munich Germany

Department of Anatomy Pavol Jozef Šafárik University 04001 Košice Slovakia

Department of Biodiversity and Molecular Ecology Research and Innovation Centre Fondazione Edmund Mach 38010 San Michele all'Adige Italy

Department of Earth Observation Science Faculty of Geo Information Science and Earth Observation University of Twente 7500 AE Enschede The Netherlands

Department of Parasitology and Zoology University of Veterinary Medicine 1078 Budapest Hungary

Institute of Infectology Friedrich Loeffler Institut 17493 Greifswald Germany

Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry CAS 16206 Prague 6 Czech Republic

Institute of Parasitology National Centre for Vector Entomology Vetsuisse Faculty University of Zurich 8057 Zürich Switzerland

Institute of Vertebrate Biology v v i Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic 60365 Brno Czech Republic

Institute of Virology Biomedical Research Center Slovak Academy of Sciences 84505 Bratislava Slovakia

Institute of Zoology Slovak Academy of Sciences 84506 Bratislava Slovakia

Mundialis GmbH and Co KG 53111 Bonn Germany

Parasitological Institute Slovak Academy of Sciences 04001 Košice Slovakia

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