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Background  Recently, a new rickettsia named ‘ Candidatus  Rickettsia vini’ belonging to the spotted fever group has been molecularly detected in  Ixodes arboricola  ticks in Spain, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Turkey, with prevalence reaching up to 100 %. The aim of this study was to isolate this rickettsia in pure culture, and to describe it as a new  Rickettsia  species.    Methods  A total of 148 ornitophilic nidicolous ticks  Ixodes arboricola  were collected in a forest near Breclav (Czech Republic) and examined for rickettsiae. Shell vial technique was applied to isolate rickettsiae in Vero cells. Rickettsial isolation was confirmed by optical microscopy and sequencing of partial sequences of the rickettsial genes  gltA ,  ompA ,  ompB , and  htrA . Laboratory guinea pigs and chickens were used for experimental infestations and infections. Animal blood sera were tested by immunofluorescence assay employing crude antigens of various rickettsiae.    Results   Rickettsia vini  n. sp. was successfully isolated from three males of  I. arboricola . Phylogenetic analysis of fragments of 1092, 590, 800, and 497 nucleotides of the  gltA ,  ompA ,  ompB , and  htrA  genes, respectively, showed closest proximity of  R. vini  n. sp. to  Rickettsia japonica  and  Rickettsia heilongjiangensis  belonging to the spotted fever group. Experimental infection of guinea pigs and chickens with  R. vini  led to various levels of cross-reactions of  R. vini -homologous antibodies with  Rickettsia rickettsii ,  Rickettsia parkeri , ‘ Candidatus  Rickettsia amblyommii’,  Rickettsia rhipicephali ,  Rickettsia bellii , and  Rickettsia felis . Laboratory infestations by  R. vini- infected  I. arboricola  larvae on chickens led to no seroconversion to  R. vini  n. sp., nor cross-reactions with  R. rickettsii ,  R. parkeri , ‘ Ca.  R. amblyommii’,  R. rhipicephali ,  R. bellii  or  R. felis .    Conclusions  Our results suggest that  R. vini  n. sp. is possibly a tick endosymbiont, not pathogenic for guinea pigs and chickens. Regarding specific phenotypic characters and significant differences of DNA sequences in comparison to the most closely related species ( R. japonica  and  R. heilongjiangensis ), we propose to classify the isolate as a new species,  Rickettsia vini .    Electronic supplementary material  The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13071-016-1742-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Rickettsia vini n. sp. (Rickettsiaceae) infecting the tick Ixodes arboricola (Acari: Ixodidae)