Epidemiological Overview of Borreliosis in Humans, Animals, and Ticks in Morocco: A Systematic Review Within a One Health Perspective

Background Currently, zoonotic diseases pose a threat to international public health, such as Borreliosis, which is considered an emerging vector‐borne zoonotic infectious disease, usually inoculated by ticks and caused by the spirochete Borrelia spp. Clinically, it is initially characterized by febrile or flu‐like symptoms, confused with COVID 19, Congo hemorrhagic fever, monkeypox, rickettsiosis, etc., followed by other manifestations. The severity of the disease depends on the species of tick vector and the type of borreliosis pathogen transmitted. In Morocco, the epidemiological situation of borreliosis in humans and animals is unknown, as are the species of ticks that carry the disease. The aim of this work is to determine the prevalence of borreliosis through a review in humans and animals in Morocco, covering data from the 19th century to the present day. Material and Methods Based on the selection criteria, 8 articles were selected from the PubMed, Google Scholar, Elsevier, Web of Science, Science Direct, and Scopus databases. Results The forms of borreliosis identified in Morocco were tick‐borne relapsing fever Borrelia, Borrelia hispanica, B. crocidurae, B. burgdorferi, B. garinii , B. lusitaniae , and B. merionesi . While the tick species carrying the disease were Ornithodoros marocanus, O. erractus, O. sonrai , and Ixode ricinus . The main borreliosis hosts identified in Morocco were humans, sheep, turtles, rodents, and insectivores and ticks. This review included 90,123 humans, 213 animals, and 881 ticks, among which 273, 40, and 129 were positive for borreliosis, respectively. The overall apparent prevalence was 0.30% in humans, 18.78% in animals, and 21.68% in ticks. Conclusion This study provides important information on the forms of borreliosis, the different hosts and tick species most commonly associated with humans, and highlights the epidemiological situation of the disease in Morocco.