Apart from the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi, which can cause Lyme borreliosis, ticks can carry a wide variety of other bacteria, viruses or parasites (e.g. Anaplasma phagocytophilum, Neoehrlichia mikurensis, Borrelia miyamotoi, Rickettsia spp. and Babesia spp.) However, they are generally found much less frequently in ticks than the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi, as a study of 1500 ticks in Belgium showed in 2017. Diseases caused by these germs are also rarely detected in humans in Belgium, but the infections are often without symptoms or with flu-like symptoms, and can therefore go unnoticed. However, these infections can sometimes be serious, especially in people with reduced immunity. After a tick bite, doctors should therefore be alert to possible symptoms and pathogens other than Lyme borreliosis