Archive for the ‘Borrelia Miyamotoi (Relapsing Fever Group)’ Category

Borrelia Miyamotoi Found in 3-5% of New England Blood Samples = Tens of Thousands Possibly Infected

https://www.futurity.org/borrelia-miyamotoi-new-england-ticks-2716322-2/

Another tick bacteria turns up in New England blood samples

March 25th, 2022 Posted by

Human blood samples from across New England show evidence of Borrelia miyamotoi, a relative of the bacteria that causes Lyme disease.

The findings add important new details to understanding the bacteria species, Borrelia miyamotoi, which was only recently found to infect humans. The tiny species is transmitted by the same deer ticks that carry the Lyme disease pathogen, and can cause meningoencephalitis and relapsing fevers.

“We thought that Borrelia miyamotoi, because it was so recently discovered, would have been more locally confined,” says Peter Krause, senior research scientist at the Yale School of Public Health and senior author of the study. “To our surprise, it was found at all our testing sites throughout New England.”

Krause and Durland Fish, professor emeritus of epidemiology (microbial diseases), were part of a team of researchers who first discovered Borrelia miyamotoi’s ability to infect humans in 2011. Graduate student researcher Demerise Johnston is first author of the new study in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.

By testing more than 1,100 blood samples gathered from states across New England in 2018, the team of researchers discovered that almost 3% of the study subjects showed evidence of an immune response (antibody) to Borrelia miyamotoi, with some collection sites demonstrating as much as 5%. These samples were so geographically dispersed in New England that the researchers were unable to determine whether the origin of the infection was southeastern New England, as is the case for Lyme disease and babesiosis, another tick-borne infection.

The proportion of samples containing Borrelia miyamotoi antibody was low compared to that of Lyme disease pathogen, which reached more than 15% in some areas. But Krause says the level of Borrelia miyamotoi antibodies found in the samples indicates that physicians should keep an eye out for the bacteria in patients who present with Lyme disease-like symptoms.

“We’re talking about the possibility of tens of thousands of New England residents becoming infected with Borrelia miyamotoi based on what we found,” he says. “I think it’s important for people to realize that this disease is out there.”

For the study, the researchers also looked into the prevalence of another microorganism, Babesia microti, in their samples. That species is the primary cause of human babesiosis, and it can be spread through ticks just like the other two. Their analysis suggested that around 10% of the samples showed evidence of antibodies against this pathogen. These infections can be transmitted at the same time and coinfection is possible.

“Still, Lyme predominates, but the gap is not as great as is assumed,” Krause says. “There’s more Babesia infections than people realize. Physicians working in areas where babesiosis occurs should be aware of the disease and test for it when patients have consistent symptoms.”

Borrelia miyamotoi disease is much less frequent than those for the microbial species that cause Lyme disease and babesiosis. Krause says there are dependable treatment strategies that can cure individuals who have Borrelia miyamotoi infection. Those strategies involve essentially the same antibiotic treatments that treat Lyme disease. He and his colleagues say in the study that tracking the geographic spread of the species could help health care workers be on alert for potential transmission through ticks and possibly through blood transfusions, although additional studies are needed to confirm that this could happen.

Coauthors are from the Laboratory of Emerging Pathogens at the US Food and Drug Administration and L2 Diagnostics in New Haven, Connecticut.

Source: Matt Kristofferson for Yale University

Category:

Borrelia Miyamotoi (Relapsing Fever Group), Lyme, research, Treatment

Cats & Cars Helping Scientists Study Lyme Disease

https://mta.ca/about/news/cats-and-cars-help-scientists-study-lyme-disease-fri-01282022-0859

Cats and cars help scientists study Lyme disease

28 Jan 2022
Study from Mount Allison University researchers uses citizen science to find a new source of Lyme disease bacteria in New Brunswick mice

SACKVILLE, NB – A new study from Mount Allison University, aided by cats and cat owners, is shedding light on a new source of Lyme disease bacteria in the Maritimes and how the Lyme disease pathogen in transmitted in wildlife.

Mount Allison University biology professor Dr. Vett Lloyd and graduate student Chris Zinck recently published a paper, Borrelia burgdorferi and Borrelia miyamotoi in Atlantic Canadian wildlife, in the peer-reviewed journal PLOS ONE.

Lloyd and Zinck partnered with local veterinarians and cat owners to collect wildlife specimens and study them for zoonotic diseases – diseases such as Lyme disease that are transmitted from wildlife to humans. In this latest study, Lloyd, who heads Mount Allison’s Tick Lab, and Zinck have found a new wildlife species, the jumping mouse, that can carry Lyme disease in New Brunswick. The pair also discovered that one of the types of Lyme disease bacteria can be transmitted through the placenta to the young in that mouse species.

“We know that Lyme disease is abundant in New Brunswick wildlife,” says Lloyd. “But we didn’t know how abundant it was in wild animals in the province and these findings raise more concerns about the potential risks of Lyme disease in our region.”

To collect wildlife specimens, researchers used a Citizen Science approach, enlisting the assistance local cats and motorists in providing a large number of mice, voles, shrews, squirrels, porcupines, and other animals, to study.

Lloyd came up with the community-based approach at her home with her cat Entropy, a calico who hunts with surgical precision.

“As I looked at yet another one of Entropy’s ‘gifts’ on the front step, I wondered if there was a way for these little lives to contribute to science,” says Lloyd. “I had the same thought on my drive into work along the TransCanada highway each day, seeing animals on the side of the road.”
Zinck, who completed both his undergraduate and master’s degrees at Mount Allison and is currently completing his PhD at the University of Saskatchewan, also hit the road in the name of science. With a safety vest and permits in tow, he collected and dissected several hundred accidentally killed wild animals, finding both the known Lyme disease bacteria, Borrelia burgdorferi, and a different kind, Borrelia miyamotoi, in specimens.

“This work is important for the health of people and their pets as Borrelia miyamotoi infection would not be detected by the standard Lyme disease tests,” says Lloyd. “Even more surprisingly, we found that an infected jumping mouse mother had passed the infection on to her fetuses. This has implications for the health of wildlife and although few people would worry too much about the health of wild mice, it does have implications for a rapid increase in infected mice and the possibility that an infected human mother could pass on the infection to her child.”

Lloyd and Zinck hope that this work will help people realize how closely people and wildlife are connected and that the community can participate in advancing science.

The article, published on Jan. 22, is available to the public on journal’s website: PLOS ONE https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0262229

Category:

Borrelia Miyamotoi (Relapsing Fever Group), Lyme, research

Study: Borrelia miyamotoi in Human-Biting Ticks Found in 19 States

https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/27/12/20-4646_article

Volume 27, Number 12—December 2021
Research Letter

Borrelia miyamotoi in Human-Biting Ticks, United States, 2013–2019

Guang XuComments to Author , Chu-Yuan Luo, Fumiko Ribbe, Patrick Pearson, Michel Ledizet, and Stephen M. Rich
Author affiliations: University of Massachusetts–Amherst, Amherst, Massachusetts USA (G. Xu, C.-Y. Luo, F. Ribbe, P. Pearson, S.M. Rich); L2 Diagnostics, New Haven, Connecticut, USA (M. Ledizet)

Abstract

During 2013–2019, Borrelia miyamotoi infection was detected in 19 US states. Infection rate was 0.5%–3.2%; of B. miyamotoi–positive ticks, 59.09% had concurrent infections. B. miyamotoi is homogeneous with 1 genotype from Ixodes scapularis ticks in northeastern and midwestern states and 1 from I. pacificus in western states.

And yes, Wisconsin is one of them. 

For more:

Category:

Borrelia Miyamotoi (Relapsing Fever Group), research

New Maps Show Where Citizen Scientists Found Infected Ticks

https://www.lymedisease.org/balf-interactive-tick-maps/

New maps show where citizen scientists found infected ticks

Want an easy way to see where disease-carrying ticks have been found throughout the United States?

Check out the new interactive tick maps recently launched by the Bay Area Lyme Foundation.

The maps are based on data published in mSphere, a multidisciplinary open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology.

The information came from ticks submitted by citizen scientists as part of BALF’s Free Tick Testing Program, which ran from 2016 to 2019.

The study found infected Ixodes ticks in 116 counties which were not previously identified by the Centers for Disease Control as having them.

The testing program collected more than 20,400 ticks. 8,954 were Ixodes ticks, capable of carrying the most common tick-borne pathogens.

The research was conducted through a partnership between Bay Area Lyme Foundation, Northern Arizona University, Colorado State University and the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen).

The study evaluated the distribution and prevalence of the four most common tick–borne pathogens:

  • Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato, the group which causes Lyme disease
  • Borrelia miyamotoi, which causes tick-borne relapsing fever
  • Anaplasma phagocytophilum, which causes human granulocytic anaplasmosis
  • protozoan pathogen, Babesia microti.

The program tested two types of ticks:

  • Ixodes scapularis, also known as the blacklegged tick or the deer tick, which are found in the Northeast, Midwest and South;
  • Ixodes pacificus, also known as the western blacklegged tick, which lives in the West
The interactive maps only represent data from this citizen science study. They do not represent the total risk of tick-borne infections in the US.

An eye-opening look

“These maps will be eye-opening for many Americans as it makes it easy to see that ticks carrying disease-causing bacteria can be commonly found across the US,” stated Tanner Porter, MS, a research associate at TGen and the lead author on the study.

“If you aren’t aware of the possibility of ticks, either in your backyard or whilst traveling, you are unlikely to look for them – but an unseen tick can still transmit a pathogen and cause disease. It is important for everyone to know to look for ticks, be aware of the pathogens that they carry, and takes steps to mitigate their risk.”

This new study expands on previous research identifying ticks capable of carrying Lyme and other tick-borne diseases in 83 counties (in 24 states) where these ticks had not been previously recorded.  These included:  Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Missouri, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin.

The study builds on recently released CDC data that added 100 counties to the list of those with disease-carrying ticks.

PRESS RELEASE SOURCE: Bay Area Lyme Foundation

Category:

Anaplasmosis, Babesia, Borrelia Miyamotoi (Relapsing Fever Group), Lyme, Ticks

Lyme Disease-Causing Bacteria Spotted on Routine Blood Films

https://news.mayocliniclabs.com/2021/08/11/rare-lyme-disease-causing-bacteria-spotted-on-routine-blood-films/

Rare Lyme Disease-Causing Bacteria Spotted on Routine Blood Films

Eye on Innovation features exciting advances taking place at Mayo Clinic Laboratories. This monthly series shines a spotlight on recently developed tests and highlights how Mayo Clinic translates ideas and discoveries into testing resources that improve diagnosis and care for patients across the globe.

The bacterium was revealed through Mayo Clinic Laboratories’ polymerase chain reaction (PCR) blood test for Lyme disease (Test ID: PBORR). That PCR testing is the preferred method for differentiating between the two bacteria. People who have B. mayonii infection also may test positive with the Lyme disease serology test (Test ID: LYME), but the test will not distinguish a B. mayonii infection from a B. burgdorferi infection.

It’s long been known that Lyme disease is caused by bacteria transmitted through the bite of an infected black-legged tick (otherwise known as the deer tick). The understanding for many years was that one species of bacteria was the main culprit behind Lyme disease in the United States: Borrelia burgdorferi.

But in 2016, researchers at Mayo Clinic discovered a new species of bacteria that causes Lyme disease. They named it Borrelia mayonii, after Mayo Clinic’s founders, Drs. William and Charles Mayo.

A key difference that has been noted between B. mayonii and B. burgdorferi is that B. mayonii spirochetes are found at high levels in peripheral blood, whereas B. burgdorferi spirochetes are not. Researchers surmised that meant the B. mayonii spirochetes potentially could be found on routine peripheral blood smears.

http://

Borrelia mayonii, Aug. 18, 2021

“IT IS IMPORTANT FOR PATHOLOGISTS AND LABORATORIANS TO KNOW THAT SPIROCHETES OF BORRELIA MAYONII CAN OCCASIONALLY BE SEEN ON ROUTINE PERIPHERAL BLOOD SMEARS,” SAYS BOBBI PRITT, M.D., CHAIR OF MAYO’S DIVISION OF CLINICAL MICROBIOLOGY AND THE PAPER’S LEAD AUTHOR. “OTHERWISE, THEY WOULD PROBABLY ASSUME THAT THE SPIROCHETES WERE FROM THE BORRELIA SPECIES THAT CAUSE RELAPSING FEVER, WHICH IS VERY DIFFERENT FROM LYME DISEASE.”

Because B. mayonii has only been found in the Upper Midwest of the United States, it remains a rare cause of Lyme disease and may frequently go undetected. Understanding that its spirochetes can occasionally be visualized in routine blood films may raise awareness and recognition of the uncommon bacterium, and it could point the way to more consistent and accurate diagnosis of this cause of Lyme disease.

That proved to be true earlier this year when staff in Mayo Clinic’s Division of Clinical Microbiology observed several spirochaetes on thin blood films from a specimen that had tested PCR positive for B. mayonii. The bacteria were confirmed to be B. mayonii through genome sequencing. The findings were published in July in the journal Clinical Microbiology and Infection.

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**Comment**

Since Borrelia miyamotoi is not a reportable illness to the CDC, no one has any clue about prevalence, and despite authorities continually stating it’s “rare,” reports are coming in continually that it’s highly likely to be a much bigger problem than ‘authorities’ believe.  Also, despite their statement that Bm has only been found in the upper midwest in the U.S., California ticks have carried Bm for a long time, and there are reports of it worldwide.

It was recently discovered that:

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Category:

Borrelia Miyamotoi (Relapsing Fever Group), research, Testing