Detection of the emerging tick-borne pathogen, Tamdy virus, in Dermacentor marginatus ticks, southeastern Türkiye.

Abstract

Tamdy virus (TAMV) is an emerging tick-borne virus in the family Nairoviridae, identified as a human pathogen causing febrile illness after tick exposure. This study aimed to detect and characterise TAMV in ticks collected from non-endemic regions of Türkiye. A total of 529 ticks were sampled from six provinces and identified as Haemaphysalis parva (27%), Rhipicephalus bursa (26%), Haemaphysalis punctata (20.7%), Dermacentor marginatus (17.2%), and Ixodes ricinus (8.8%). Screening with a single-step generic PCR revealed one TAMV-positive pool out of 96. For characterisation, the S segment of TAMV was amplified using two primer sets. Phylogenetic analyses of the partial L gene and full S segment showed that the sequence from Osmaniye sample clustered closely with the TT1 isolate from Konya, Türkiye. Amino acid comparison indicated that Turkish isolates were more similar to each other than to those from Russia and China, forming a distinct clade within TAMV. Minor amino acid differences between the Turkish isolates suggest that TAMV diversity in Türkiye is shaped by internal evolution rather than external introductions. These findings highlight the importance of continuous surveillance of tick-borne zoonotic viruses and suggest that TAMV may have a wider vector range and geographic distribution than previously recognised.