Pathogen Detection in Ornithodoros sonrai Ticks and Invasive House Mice Mus musculus domesticus in Senegal.

() ticks are the only known vectors of , an agent of tick-borne relapsing fever (TBRF) borreliosis. Rodents serve as principal natural reservoirs for . Our research objective was to detect TBRF and other zoonotic bacterial infections in ticks and in house mice , an invasive species currently expanding in rural northern Senegal. Real-time and conventional PCR were utilized for detecting and other bacterial taxa. The analyses were performed on 253 specimens of . and 150 samples of brain and spleen tissue from rodents. was found in one tick and 18 samples, with prevalences of 0.39 percent and 12 percent, respectively, as well as sp. in one . Further, we were able to detect the presence of a potentially infectious novel species belonging to the Anaplasmataceae family for the first time in ticks. More attention should be paid to the house mouse and ticks, as they can be potential hosts for novel species of pathogenic bacteria in humans.