Acknowledgements
The authors are very grateful to all the volunteers who helped in the capture of small mammals and to the French forestry agency, ONF, which authorised trapping in Murbach forest. The authors would also like to thank Philippe Desprès, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France for providing recombinant proteins SNAP-TBEV EDIII and SNAP. We thank the “Tiques et Maladies a Tiques (TMT)” group ‘of the “Reseau Ecologie des Interactions Durables” (REID) for stimulating discussion and support.