Or the presence of ticks. Each collected tick was identified to species level as well as the following epidemiological parameters have been calculated: prevalence, mean intensity and mean abundance. The total number of ticks collected from rodents was 483, with eight species identified: Ixodes ricinus, I. redikorzevi, I. apronophorus, I. trianguliceps, I. laguri, Dermacentor marginatus, Rhipicephalus sanguineus and Haemaphysalis sulcata. The general prevalence of tick infestation was 29.55 , using a imply intensity of 3.86 and a mean abundance of 1.14. Only two polyspecific infestations have been identified: I. ricinus + I. redikorzevi and I. ricinus + D. marginatus. Conclusions: Our study showed a fairly high diversity of ticks parasitizing rodents in Romania. By far the most typical tick in rodents was I. ricinus, followed by I. redikorzevi. Particular rodents appear to host a considerably larger number of tick species than others, the most essential inside this view getting Apodemus flavicollis and Microtus arvalis. The exact same applies for the general prevalence of tick parasitism, with some species additional normally infected (M. arvalis, A. uralensis, A. flavicollis and M. glareolus) than others. Two rodent species (Mus musculus, Rattus norvegicus) did not harbour ticks at all. Based on our results we could assert that rodents commonly can act as very good indicators for assessing the distribution of certain tick species. Keyword phrases: Hard-ticks, Ixodidae, Rodents, Micromammals, Romania Correspondence: adsandorgmail.com University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Department of Parasitology and Parasitic Illnesses, Calea Mntur 3-5, Cluj-Napoca 400372, Romania2012 Mihalca et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. That is PubMed ID:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21258585 an Open Access article distributed under the terms from the Inventive Commons Attribution License (http:creativecommons.orglicensesby2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original perform is appropriately cited.Mihalca et al. Parasites Vectors 2012, 5:266 http:www.parasitesandvectors.comcontent51Page 2 ofBackground Rodents (Order Rodentia) are often small-sized mammals with a worldwide distribution, accounting for more than 40 of all mammal species. Rodents are both widespread and abundant, as are their connected ticks. As a result, primarily from a human overall health perspective, the rodent-tick associations have a large importance in most ecosystems [1]. In addition to their role as tick hosts, rodents serve as reservoirs of tick-borne pathogens, hence escalating their significance within the eco-epidemiology of ailments like Lyme borreliosis, rickettsiosis, babesiosis, ehrlichiosis or tularaemia [1-3]. Most of the tough ticks feeding on rodents adhere to a threehost life cycle (i.e. each and every of the active stages – larva, nymph and adult – feeds on a distinctive host person). Normally, these ticks feed on a number of progressively larger hosts, which means that a big quantity of little mammal species usually harbour the immature stages [1]. On the other hand, there are certain Ixodidae that characteristically attack micromammals also through their adult stage. One of the most comprehensive evaluations on micromammal-tick associations [1] lists 14 species of adult Ixodidae parasitic on rodents (Anomalohimalaya cricetuli, A. lama, A. lotozskyi, Haemaphysalis verticalis, Ixodes purchase Carbonyl cyanide 4-(trifluoromethoxy)phenylhydrazone angustus, I. apronophorus, I. crenulatus, I. laguri, I. nipponensis, I. occultus, I. pomerantzevi, I. redikorzevi, I. trianguliceps, Rhipicephalu.