Ixodes ricinus ticks and mice can be infected with both Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto and Borrelia garinii. The effect of coinfection with these two Borrelia species on the development of murine Lyme borreliosis is unknown. Therefore, we investigated whether coinfection with the nonarthritogenic B. garinii strain PBi and the arthritogenic B. burgdorferi sensu stricto strain B31 alters muri...

In this report we present a method to cultivate Borrelia spirochetes from human serum samples with high efficiency. This method incorporates improved sample collection, optimization of culture media and use of matrix protein. The method was first optimized utilizing Borrelia laboratory strains, and later by demonstrating growth of Borrelia from sera from fifty seropositive Lyme disease patients...

BACKGROUND Relapsing fever is the most frequent bacterial disease in Africa. Four main vector / pathogen complexes are classically recognized, with the louse Pediculus humanus acting as vector for B. recurrentis and the soft ticks Ornithodoros sonrai, O. erraticus and O. moubata acting as vectors for Borrelia crocidurae, B. hispanica and B. duttonii, respectively. Our aim was to investigate the...

BACKGROUND We performed a nationwide prospective study on the transmission risk for Borrelia to humans, investigating symptoms and serology at enrolment and three months after tick bites, and after standard treatment for erythema migrans (EM). Aiming to quantify the infection risk at point of care by physicians, we explored risk factors such as tick testing for Borrelia and assessment of the du...

Forty-four marsupials, 77 rodents and 161 ticks were captured in an Atlantic Forest Reserve in Cotia county, State of São Paulo, where human cases of Lyme disease (LD) simile were reported. Twenty-one borrelia-like spirochete isolates were recovered from the mammals' blood and rodent livers or spleens, and triturated ticks inoculated into BSK II medium. Our results suggest that the reservoirs a...

BACKGROUND Lyme disease is a widespread cosmopolitan zoonosis caused by species belonging to the genus Borrelia. It is transmitted from animal reservoir hosts to humans through hard - ticks of genus Ixodes which are vectors of the disease. CASE PRESENTATION Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato infection was identified in a marbled polecat, Vormela peregusna, and two European minks, Mustela lutreol...

Bacterial biofilms are microbial communities held together by an extracellular polymeric substance matrix predominantly composed of polysaccharides, proteins and nucleic acids. We had previously shown that Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto, the causative organism of Lyme disease in the United States is capable of forming biofilms in vitro. Here, we investigated biofilm formation by B. afzelii ...

The main of the study was to evaluate the presence of Borrelia burgdorferi infection in domestic and wild vertebrates and ectoparasites in endemic areas from the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. A total of 445 serum samples were examined by ELISA, which used the Borrelia burgdorferi strain G39/40 U.S. source and 3,821 tick samples were tested by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). B. burgdorferi ant...

Lyme arthritis is caused in Europe by three main pathogenic species of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato: Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto, Borrelia garinii, and Borrelia afzelii. Because few synovial samples have yet been analysed by species-specific DNA amplification methods, further studies are needed to define the spectra of clinical manifestations associated with these different species. T...

In the presence of parasites, mothers can transfer specific immunoglobulins to their offspring. These antibodies are typically thought to provide protection until the juvenile produces its own immune response, but they may also act to educate the developing immune system so as to prepare the individual for future parasite challenge. We examined this hypothesis in a natural host–parasite system ...