The purpose of this master’s thesis was to determine the presence and distribution of the bacterium Spiroplasma ixodetis in ticks collected in Slovenia and to assess its prevalence in different tick species and geographic regions. The study included 5,142 ticks of the species Ixodes ricinus, 815 ticks of the species Haemaphysalis punctata, 148 ticks of the species Dermacentor reticulatus, 21 ticks of the species Dermacentor marginatus, and 160 ticks of the genus Hyalomma. We detected the presence of the bacterium using two real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) methods targeting the rpoB and 23S rRNA genes. We further analyzed 34 selected positive samples by sequencing the 16S rRNA and 23S rRNA genes and performing a phylogenetic comparison with published sequences. We detected the bacterium S. ixodetis in the species I. ricinus, D. reticulatus, and D. marginatus, while its prevalence in H. punctata was negligible. The prevalence in I. ricinus ticks was 0.11–0.14 in females, 0.09 in males, 0.13 in nymphs, and 0.03 in larvae. We observed marked differences among regions, with the highest prevalence in the Savinjska region and the lowest in the Obalno-kraška region. Phylogenetic analysis showed that several sequences of the bacterium S. ixodetis from ticks were distinct from those obtained from patients, indicating the existence of genetically distinct variants of the bacterium. The results confirm the widespread distribution of S. ixodetis in Slovenian tick populations and indicate that methods capable of distinguishing between potentially pathogenic and non-pathogenic variants are necessary to assess its actual significance for human health.
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