Bartonella spp. can cause persistent bloodstream infections in humans and animals. To determine whether Bartonella henselae is present in questing Ixodes ricinus ticks, we analyzed the prevalence of B. henselae DNA among tick stages compared to the prevalence of DNA from Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato, the pathogen most frequently transmitted by ticks. B. henselae DNA was present with a preval...

BACKGROUND Morphea is an inflammatory autoimmune skin sclerosis of unknown etiology. A causative role of Borrelia burgdorferi infection has been controversially discussed, but no conclusive solution has yet been achieved. OBJECTIVE Intrigued by 3 young patients with severe Borrelia-associated morphea and high-titer antinuclear antibodies, we retrospectively examined the relationship between B...

AIM Here we investigated the role of complement activation in phagocytosis and the release of cytokines and chemokines in response to two clinical isolates: Borrelia afzelii K78, which is resistant to complement-mediated lysis, and Borrelia garinii LU59, which is complement-sensitive. METHODS Borrelia spirochetes were incubated in hirudin plasma, or hirudin-anticoagulated whole blood. Complem...

To clarify the taxonomic status of two recently described Borrelia genomic groups, groups VS116 and M19, three group VS116 strains and eight group M19 strains isolated from Ixodes ricinus ticks in Switzerland, The Netherlands, and the United Kingdom were characterized. PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis of the 5S-23S intergenic spacer amplicon, rRNA gene restriction an...

Species of the genus Borrelia cause human and animal infections, including Lyme disease, relapsing fever, and epizootic bovine abortion. The borrelial genome is unique among bacterial genomes in that it is composed of a linear chromosome and a series of linear and circular plasmids. The plasmids exhibit significant genetic redundancy and carry 175 paralogous gene families, most of unknown funct...

We have cloned and sequenced the flagellin gene from Borrelia miyamotoi strain HT31 and compared it with previously published flagellin sequences. Sequence similarity analysis demonstrated that strain HT31 is phylogenetically distant from the three species of Lyme disease borreliae is deeply branched into the relapsing fever borrelia cluster. The result was in full agreement with the classifica...

Lyme borreliosis is a zoonotic disease caused by Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato bacteria transmitted to humans and domestic animals by the bite of an Ixodes spp. tick (deer tick). Despite improvements in diagnostic tests and public awareness of Lyme disease, the reported cases have increased over the past decade to approximately 30,000 per year. Limitations and failed public acceptance of a hu...

The quantitative buffy coat (QBC) parasite detection method is a sensitive and specific tool for the diagnosis of malaria parasites. It is also useful for the diagnoses of other hemoparasites, including Trypanosoma, Babesia, and Leptospira. We report a case of relapsing fever diagnosed by this technique in a short-term traveler from Senegal. The diagnosis was confirmed by the standard Giemsa he...

yme disease remains one of the most common health threats for dogs in the US. The disease is caused by Borrelia burgdorferi bacterial spirochetes that are transmitted to dogs through the bite of Ixodes spp. ticks. The disease threat can vary by location due to variability in opportunities for exposure to the infected carrier tick. For instance, a survey reported the prevalence of seropositive d...