Absence of Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus in wild lagomorphs and their ticks in Spanish Mediterranean ecosystems

Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus (CCHFV) is an emerging tick-borne pathogen in different European countries. Since 2013, clinical and fatality cases associated with CCHFV infection have been reported in humans in Spain. During the last few years, endemic circulation of this virus has been detected in ticks and wild ungulates in this country, but the role of other sympatric wild species in the sylvatic cycle of this multi-host virus remains poorly understood. The aims of the present study were to assess exposure to CCHFV in wild lagomorphs in southern Spain, a CCHFV endemic area, and to determine the presence of the virus in ticks feeding on these species. Serum samples from 473 European wild rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) and 162 Iberian hares (Lepus granatensis), and 120 ticks feeding on 85 of these wild lagomorphs were collected on 133 hunting grounds between 2018/2019 and 2021/2022 hunting seasons. The presence of antibodies against CCHFV was assessed in all serum samples using a commercial ELISA, whereas ticks were tested for the presence of CCHFV-RNA by a multiplex RT-qPCR that detects all known genotypes of this virus. None of the 635 (0.0 %; 95 %CI: 0.0-0.6) lagomorphs tested had anti-CCHFV antibodies and CCHFV-RNA was not found in any of the 120 (0.0 %; 95 %CI: 0.0-3.0) ticks analyzed. To the best of the authors knowledge, this is the first epidemiological study conducted on CCHFV in Iberian hare worldwide. Our findings indicate absence of exposure to CCHFV in European wild rabbit and Iberian hare populations, as well as in their ticks, which suggests that they do not seem to play a relevant role in the epidemiology of CCHFV in Mediterranean ecosystems of southern Spain.