Ticks species biting humans in Ankara: Species diversity, hosts and geographical distribution

Objective: Ticks which live in tropical and subtropical climates, are ectoparasites and have to suck blood throughout their development period.They are among the most important vectors of disease affecting the world on humans and animals.Ticks are ectoparasites which have the ability to retain human and animal populations, and thus contaminate may viral, bacterial, protoan and helmint infections in Turkey as in all the world.In our study, the ticks collected from people who applied to our lab due to tick retaining from Ankara and its districts are examined in order to evaluate the situation in terms of spreading today's situation to compare with the past studies.With the data obtained in this context it is aimed to take steps for defining the relationship between the tick-hostpathogen interactions, to determine the connection with ecological criteria, to check and get the correct protection measures for diseases they can carry by specified age group and region showing high affinity.Methods: Our study was conducted between May 2015 and April 2018 by evaluating the ticks from the patients who applied to the hospitals of Govermental and University Hospitals.These ticks are then