Evidence of Crimean-Congo Haemorrhagic Fever Virus Occurrence in Ixodidae Ticks of Armenia.

Background: Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) causes serious health problems in humans. Though ticks of the genera play a significant role in the CCHF virus transmission it was also found in 31 other tick species.

Methods: Totally, 1412 ticks from 8 remote sites in Armenia during 2016 were sampled, pooled (3-5 ticks per pool) and tested for the presence of CCHFV antigen using ELISA test.

Results: From 359 tick pools, 132 were CCHF virus antigen-positive. From 6 tick species, four species (, , , ) were positive for the virus antigen and was the most prevalent (37.9%). and revealed no positive pools, but both revealed delectable but very low virus antigen titers. The highest infection rate (50%) was observed in , whereas rate of infection was 1 out of 17 pools.

Conclusion: For the first time in the last four decades CCHF virus antigen was detected in Ixodid ticks of Armenia. This finding substantiates the role of in the disease epidemiology; however, the role of in the CCHF virus circulation in the country could not be excluded.