Ticks on the Edible Dormouse (Glis glis)

Rodents in central Europe, such as the Edible Dormouse, are common hosts for many ectoparasites, including ticks. One of the most extensively studied tick species is Ixodes ricinus, whose geographic distribution extends from Scandinavia to Morocco. In 2014, a new North African species I. inopinatus was described and found in Morocco, Tunisia, the Iberian Peninsula, and peripherally also in Romania, Austria, and southern Germany. Both Ixodes species were reported in sympatry in southern Europe (Spain and Portugal) where they feed mainly on lizards. During the period from early June to October in 2016-2019, we captured 4597 dormice and calculated the rate of tick infestation. Our results show that the mean prevalence of ticks in the dormouse population was 31.9 %. In the next step, 400 ticks from 2019 (255 larvae, 144 nymphs, 1 adult) from dormice were identified morphologically and by multiplex-PCR to distinguish I. ricinus and I. inopinatus. The results of our analysis show the first report of I. inopinatus feeding on rodents.