Pictorial Overview of the Maturation of Ixodes Dammini (Acarina: Ixodidae) in the Laboratory

Abstract

IN 1975, several children from Lyme, Connecticut, were diagnosed as having juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. However, the rural setting and presence of a unique rash led several investigators to suspect a different etiology. Subsequently, Willy Burgdorfer and coworkers at the Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Hamilton, Montana, isolated a spirochete, which was eventually named Borrelia burgdorferi , from Ixodes Dammini ticks. In 1983, this spirochete was isolated from the blood of patients with what is now called Lyme disease. Since that time, Lyme disease has become the most frequently reported tick-associated illness in the United States.