Abstract

During the years 2008–2010 I. ricinus and I. persulcatus ticks were collected from 64 sites in mainland Estonia and on the island Saaremaa. Presence of B. miyamotoi was found in 0.9% (23/2622) of ticks. The prevalence in I. persulcatus and I. ricinus ticks differed significantly, 2.7% (15/561) and 0.4% (8/2061), respectively. The highest prevalence rates were in found South-Eastern Estonia in an area of I. persulcatus and I. ricinus sympatry and varied from 1.4% (1/73) to 2.8% (5/178). Co-infections with B. burgdorferi s.l. group spirochetes and tick-borne encephalitis virus were also revealed. Genetic characterization of partial 16S rRNA, p66 and glpQ genes demonstrated that Estonian sequences belong to two types of B. miyamotoi and cluster with sequences from Europe and the European part of Russia, as well as with sequences from Siberia, Asia and Japan, here designated as European and Asian types, respectively. Estonian sequences of the European type were obtained from I. ricinus ticks only, whereas the Asian type of B. miyamotoi was shown for both tick species in the sympatric regions.

Highlights

  • The Borrelia genus consists of two groups of species [1].The Lyme borreliosis (LB) group of spirochetes include agents that cause disease (LB) in humans as well as some species not associated with human disease

  • DNA of B. miyamotoi was detected in 23 (0.9%) tick suspensions, 15 of which originated from I. persulcatus and 8 from I. ricinus ticks

  • The highest prevalence of B. miyamotoi in tick populations was detected in the South-Eastern Estonia, in Valgamaa (2.8%), Tartumaa (1.9%) and Vorumaa (1.4%) counties

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Summary

Introduction

The Borrelia genus consists of two groups of species [1].The Lyme borreliosis (LB) group of spirochetes include agents that cause disease (LB) in humans as well as some species not associated with human disease. The relapsing fever (RF) group spirochetes mainly use soft (argasid) ticks as vectors [3] but some of them are transmitted by hard tick vectors. This group includes B. theileri, which is vectored by Rhipicephalus ticks and causes infections in large livestock, B. lonestari, which is transmitted by Ambylomma americanum and causes infections in deer [4], as well as B. miyamotoi, which is transmitted by Ixodes ticks and is found in a small percentage of ticks in Eurasia and North America [5,6,7,8,9]. In addition to A. argenteus, it has been shown that white-footed mice (Peromyscus leucopus) may serve as host reservoirs for B. miyamotoi [11] and detection of B. miyamotoi from wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo) was recently reported [14]

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