To assess the potential risk for other tick-borne diseases, we collected 100 adult Ixodes scapularis in Hunterdon County, a rapidly developing rural county in Lyme disease endemic western New Jersey. We tested the ticks by polymerase chain reaction for Borrelia burgdorferi, Babesia microti, and the rickettsial agent of human granulocytic ehrlichiosis (HGE). Fifty-five ticks were infected with a...

Developmental forms of Babesia spp. were studied in isolated salivary glands of Ixodes ricinus, subjected to the Feulgen reaction. The same ticks were also hosts to Babesia microti, which was determined by PCR amplification with primers specific to the fragment of a gene encoding the nuclear small sub-unit ribosomal RNA (SS-rDNA). Presence of Babesia spp. was recorded in the salivary glands of ...

The first case of human babesiosis was reported in Japan. The epidemiology of this disease in Japanese nature remains unclear. In this study, 97 common field mice captured in Hokkaido, Japan, were examined. Blood specimens absorbed onto filter papers were eluted and tested by nested PCR using specific primers for the B. microti nuclear small subunit rRNA genome. Twenty-three percent (11/47) of ...

Sera of 39 farmers, 119 foresters and 32 blood donors were investigated for the presence of antibodies against B. burgdorferi, A. phagocytophilum, B. microti and Bartonella spp. Semi-quantitative indirect immunofluorescence test was used to measure titers of anti-A. phagocytophilum, B. microti and Bartonella spp. IgG. ELISA test was used to measure titers of anti-B. burgdorferi IgM and IgG. B. ...

We have carried out epizootiologic surveys at various sites in Japan to investigate wild animals that serve as reservoirs for the agents of human babesiosis in the country. Small mammals comprising six species, Apodemus speciosus, Apodemus argenteus, Clethrionomys rufocanus, Eothenomys smithii, Crocidura dsinezumi, and Sorex unguiculatus, were trapped at various places, including Hokkaido, Chib...

During 1994-2005, we isolated Mycobacterium microti from 5 animals and 4 humans. Only 1 person was immunocompromised. Spoligotyping showed 3 patterns: vole type, llama type, and a new variant llama type.

Humans in the northeastern and midwestern United States are at increasing risk of acquiring tickborne diseases--not only Lyme disease, but also two emerging diseases, human granulocytic anaplasmosis and human babesiosis. Co-infection with two or more of these pathogens can increase the severity of health impacts. The risk of co-infection is intensified by the ecology of these three diseases bec...

We describe a severely immunosuppressed HIV-1-positive man in whom immune restoration disease associated with pulmonary infection caused by Mycobacterium microti developed after antiretroviral treatment. The diagnosis was made by using convenient spoligotyping techniques, but invasive investigations were required to exclude a tumor.

H uman babesiosis in the United States is attributable almost exclusively to infection with the intraerythro-cytic protozoan parasite Babesia microti. The primary mechanism of parasite transmission to humans is by the bite of an infected deer/black-legged tick, Ixodes scapularis, the same tick that serves as the vector for Lyme borreliosis, human granulocytic anaplasmosis, and several other tic...