This study presents the results of content analysis of published works on ixodid ticks in urban conditions in order to determine the species diversity, the vectors of research interests at various stages. Information about ticks in the cities up to the 1980s is incidental, to the point of exclusive, after this point there is targeted research in urban landscapes. There are 106 or 15 % of hard ticks of the world fauna registered in the urban territory, 26 species or 3.7 % being the most abundant. Of the urban hard tick species, 23 (88.5 %) can attack humans, and 12 species are the most adapted to the urban landscape: Ixodes ricinus, I. persulcatus, Dermacentor reticulatus, D. marginatus, I. pavlovskyi, I. scapularis (dammini), Amblyomma cajennense, Haemaphysalis longicornis, I. hexagonus, Hyalomma marginatum, Am. americanum, and Rhipicephalus sanguineus. It was determined that the most likely causes of the growing number of publications on ixodids urban landscapes are: global accelerating urbanization, the development of recreational areas, the development of green tourism, the growth of the prestige of outdoor recreation, the creation of new, especially of the landscape parks and a tendency to preserve the native landscape in the cities, a significant increase in the density of populations of common species of hard ticks adapted to living in urban environment. The vectors of further work in urban landscapes will be directed to exact planning of monitoring studies of ixodids and associated tick-borne infections.

Expansion of Rhipicephalus rossicus (Jakimov et Kohl-Jakimova, 1911) to the North, due to all its developmental stages have wide range of feeders (from amphibians to mammals) in the new man-made environmental conditions in the steppe and wood-and-steppe of Ukraine and the warming of climate (especially warm winters), is observed. The northern boundary of R. rossicus distribution lies in Vinnytsya, Kyiv, Poltava and Sumy Regions. R. bursa (Canestrini et Fanzago, 1878) and R. sanguineus (Latreille, 1806) occur only on the shores of the Black Sea and Sea of Azov (including the Crimea). Outbreak localities of R. sanguineus are in Kerch Peninsula (Crimea) and in the Dnieper floodplain. Both R. bursa and R. sanguineus are invasive species.

In Europe, two species of hantaviruses, Puumala orthohantavirus (PUUV) and Dobrava orthohantavirus (DOBV), cause hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome in humans. The rodent reservoirs for these viruses are common throughout Ukraine, and hence, the goal of this study was to identify the species and strains of hantaviruses circulating in this region. We conducted surveillance of small rodent populations in a rural region in northwestern Ukraine approximately 30 km from Poland. From the 424 small mammals captured, we identified nine species, of which the most abundant were Myodes glareolus, the bank vole (45%); Apodemus flavicollis, the yellow-necked mouse (29%); and Apodemus agrarius, the striped field mouse (14.6%) Using an indirect immunofluorescence assay, 15.7%, 20.5%, and 33.9% of the sera from M. glareolus, A. glareolus, and A. flavicollis were positive for hantaviral antibodies, respectively. Additionally, we detected antibodies to the hantaviral antigen in one Microtus arvalis, one Mus musculus, and one Sorex minutus. We screened the lung tissue for hantaviral RNA using next-generation sequencing and identified PUUV sequences in 25 small mammals, including 23 M. glareolus, 1 M. musculus, and 1 A. flavicollis, but we were unable to detect DOBV sequences in any of our A. agrarius specimens. The percent identity matrix and Bayesian phylogenetic analyses of the S-segment of PUUV from 14 M. glareolus lungs suggest the highest similarity (92–95% nucleotide or 99–100% amino acid) with the Latvian lineage. This new genetic information will contribute to future molecular surveillance of human cases in Ukraine.

Distribution of the TickHaemaphysalis Punctata(Acari, Ixodidae) in Ukraine: The northern boundary ofH. punctatarange was studied. This boundary of its native range (where this species is common and its mass reproductions are periodically recorded) was found to go through Odesa, Mykolaiv, Kherson, Zaporizhia, Donetsk and Lugansk oblasts. Clarified that the boundary of its temporary range (where this species occurs periodically and is dependent on human factors totally) was clarified to go through Volyn, Rivne, Zhytomyr, Kyiv, Chernihiv and Sumy regions. The range of H. punctata is fully subjected to anthropogenic factors in areas where this species dwelt in historically recent times only, and in ancestral areas of distribution such factors affects only dynamics and indices of abundance.