Tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV; family Flaviviridae) is the most medically important tick-borne virus in Europe and Asia. Ixodes ricinus and I. persulcatus ticks are considered to be the main vector ticks of TBEV in nature due to their specific ecological associations with the vertebrate hosts. Nevertheless, recent TBEV prevalence studies in ticks suggest that Dermacentor reticulatus ticks might play a relevant role in the maintenance of TBEV in nature. The goal of this study was to evaluate the vector competency of D. reticulatus for TBEV through experimental tick infections and comparative in vivo transmission studies involving D. reticulatus and I. ricinus ticks.

We observed that after a transcoxal micro-capillary inoculation, adult female D. reticulatus ticks efficiently replicated TBEV during the observed period of 21 days. The mean virus load reached up to 2.5 × 10⁵ gene copies and 6.4 × 10⁴ plaque forming units per tick. The infected D. reticulatus ticks were able to transmit the virus to mice. The course of infection in mice was comparable to the infection after a tick bite by I. ricinus while the virus spread and clearance was slightly faster. Moreover, D. reticulatus ticks were capable of tick-to-tick non-viraemic transmission of TBEV to the Haemaphysalis inermis nymphs during co-feeding on the same animal. The co-feeding transmission efficiency was overall slightly lower (up to 54 %) in comparison with I. ricinus (up to 94 %) and peaked 1 day later, at day 3.

In conclusion, our study demonstrated that D. reticulatus is a biologically effective vector of TBEV. In line with the recent reports of its high TBEV prevalence in nature, our data indicate that in some endemic foci, D. reticulatus might be an underrecognized TBEV vector which contributes to the expansion of the TBEV endemic areas.

ick传脑炎病毒（TBEV；黄病毒科）是欧洲和亚洲最重要的tick传病毒。由于其与脊椎动物寄主的特定生态联系，蓖麻x和波斯s被认为是自然界中TBEV的主要媒介tick。尽管如此，最近对s的TBEV患病率研究表明，网纹皮D可能在自然界中对TBEV的维持中起着重要作用。这项研究的目的是通过实验性壁虱感染以及涉及网状线虫和网状线虫的体内传播比较研究来评估网状线虫对TBEV的载体能力。I.蓖麻。

我们观察到，经尾静脉微毛细管接种后，成年雌性网状。虫在观察到的21天时间内有效地复制了TBEV。平均病毒载量达到每tick达2.5×10 ^5个基因拷贝和6.4×10 ^4个噬菌斑形成单位。被感染的网状线虫。能够将病毒传播给小鼠。小鼠的感染过程可与蓖麻毒a叮咬后的感染相当，而病毒的传播和清除速度稍快。此外，网纹D.壁虱能够将TBEV的逐壁非病毒传播传给无血血红蛋白若虫在同一动物上共同喂养。与I.ricinus（最高94％）相比，共同进料的传输效率总体略低（最高54％），并在1天后的第3天达到峰值。

总而言之，我们的研究表明网纹杜鹃是TBEV的生物学有效载体。与自然界中TBEV高流行的最新报道相一致，我们的数据表明，在某些地方病灶中，网纹D.可能是人们尚未充分认识的TBEV载体，其有助于TBEV流行区域的扩大。