BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Sixty patients with facial palsy and 67 with sudden deafness were retrospectively or prospectively examined for serological evidence of rickettsial infection; in six cases where cerebrospinal fluid was available, patients were also examined for presence of rickettsial DNA. METHODS Rickettsial antibodies were detected in single or paired serum samples using immunofluores...

Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato, the spirochete that causes human Lyme borreliosis (LB), is a genetically and phenotypically divergent species. In the past several years, various molecular approaches have been developed and used to determine the phenotypic and genetic heterogeneity within the LB-related spirochetes and their potential association with distinct clinical syndromes. These methods ...

Background: Anaplasma phagocytophilum is the etiological agent of canine granulocytic anaplasmosis in dogs and causes human (HGA). Tick-borne has been recognised as an emerging zoonotic health concern worldwide. The aim present study was to determine prevalence A. ticks collected from UK map its distribution. Routine surveillance tick-borne disease essential part a “One Health” approach infecti...

Despite the potential importance of the local structure of micropathogen populations for the epidemiology of vector‐borne diseases, the spatial and temporal heterogeneity of these populations is often neglected. This variability may have strong effects on micropathogen transmission, and therefore needs to be considered more explicitly to understand disease dynamics. Here, we examin...

A total of 874 Ixodes ricinus ticks were collected in Switzerland to investigate the genetic diversity of the Borrelia population. We integrated to the RT-PCR method the DNA sequence analysis of a 162-bp fragment of the recA gene. Five genospecies were detected: Borrelia afzelii, Borrelia burgdorferi s.s., Borrelia garinii, Borrelia valaisiana, and Borrelia lusitaniae. A heterogeneous distribut...

background: a molecular survey was conducted to investigatethe presence of pathogenic borrelia persica species caus­ing the tick borne relapsing fever (tbrf) in takistan district qazvin province, western iran. methods: a number of 1021 s oft ticks were collected from 31 villages including previously reported infected and none-infected tbrf cases and individually examined for the presenceof b. p...

Spirochetes in the genus Borrelia are responsible for tick-borne relapsing fever and Lyme disease. Borrelia-tick interactions are highly specific as each species of Borrelia is only transmitted by one or a few closely related species of ticks. Borrelia colonize the gut or salivary glands of ticks. Several Borrelia genes required for tick colonization or transmission have been identified. Borrel...