Identification of Borrelia bissettii in Ixodes scapularis ticks from New Brunswick, Canada.
Lewis J, et al. Can J Microbiol. 2019.
Abstract
Lyme disease is a tick-borne disease that is emerging in Canada. The disease is caused by spirochetes of the Lyme borreliosis group, which is expanding as new species are discovered. In Canada, Lyme disease risk has so far been assessed primarily by detection of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto. Of Ixodes scapularis ticks collected between 2014 and 2016 in New Brunswick, Canada, 7 were shown to be infected with Borrelia bissettii by nested PCR and sequencing of 5 B. bissettii genes. Since different Borrelia species are associated with different clinical manifestations and are not detected with the same diagnostic tests, the identification of a previously undocumented or underreported pathogenic Borrelia species has important implications for public and veterinary medicine.
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**Comment**
Again, the important issue here is that current CDC 2-tiered tests only test for ONE strain of borrelia when there are 300 and counting strains worldwide being transported everywhere by migrating birds, rodents, lizards, and mammals – including humans.
Before you discount Borrelia bissetti as being “somewhere else,” please know it was found in Chicago rodents:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11075925. These strains are unlike previous Borrelia isolates from NW Illinois and Wisconsin.
This excellent pdf has studies of bissetti in everything from mice to human heart valves:ws-B.Bissettii1 The pdf also makes an excellent point that desperately needs to be addressed: Borrelia strains sequenced are strains that have been grown in culture medium. What about the diverse strains identified in the Southeastern United States that cannot be cultured? It also gives two studies showing that changing criteria of the Western Blot & mixing borrelia strains increased testing sensitivity.
Time for the CDC to roll up their sleeves and deal with this. It is way past time.
Lyme disease is a multisystem tick-borne transmissive disease with heterogeneous manifestations, frequently making the diagnosis difficult in clinical practice. Herein, we report a case of a 43-year-old female patient who presented with generalized lymphadenopathy requiring a further diagnostic evaluation towards lymphoma. The patient also had clinical signs of Sjögren’s syndrome. Lymph node excision with subsequent histological and immunohistochemical studies were performed. While light microscopy findings were suspicious for lymphoma, immunohistochemistry results were consistent with cortical and paracortical lymph node hyperplasia with no evidence of lymphoproliferative disorder. Further laboratory testing confirmed the presence of Lyme borreliosis.Effectiveness of the administered antibiotic therapy confirmed Borrelia burgdorferi infection. Interrelationships between Sjögren’s syndrome, lymphadenopathy and Lyme disease are discussed.
This is a colony in urine. (spirochetes in pleomorphic colony in Lyme patient’s urine stain with acridine orange)
We get to the ways that burgdorferi is transmitted. I laugh at all this stuff about looking for the Woodtick. That’s so ridiculous because most of the people who get Lyme disease have never heard or seen a tick. We know now it’s in tears and people wipe their eyes and then you shake hands with them. Or we don’t laugh so hard about the physician we had in the hospital who wouldn’t touch the doorknobs in the hospital without taking his white coat and handling the doorknob through a coat. Maybe he wasn’t so insane after all.
So we think this is spread by what is called fomites(an inanimateobject or substancethat is capable of transmittinginfectiousorganismsfromoneindividual to another) which is the pencil in the bag as you pick up a pen to write a check or anything you handle. So it’s in urine and in tears and it’s also spread by mosquitoes and who hasn’t had a mosquito bite? We’ve tested the mosquitoes in Michigan and sure enough they can carry the Lyme spirochete.
Oh, this is very interesting, I thought. This is a culture of that dreadful spirochete of Lou Gehrig’s and it’s stained with acridine orange and it’s staining red showing it’s still full of pep and multiplying and it’s a 10 day culture. We repeat this with the spirochete of Lyme or MS and at 10 days they are only green so if you have your choice you’re not going to take this one are you? Lou Gehrig’s is the last thing you’d want.
And this is something else where the ordinary lab that doesn’t have florescent antibody – this is a simple stain – Sudan black B. Sudan Black only stains a few things. It stains pseudomonas, you don’t run into pseudomonas in the average patient. Sudan black B. is something you can purchase and doesn’t cost very money like a florescent antibody does – that is very useful. (slide says “membrane *& outgrowth of L-body in blood culture of Lyme patient. Stained with Sudan Black B.) That’s probably my last slide. (Slide says: “To me they’re not just a bunch of microbes – they’re personalities!”)
Together with her collegue JoAnne Whittacker, Mattman did groundbreaking work on Lyme testing. Her Gold Standard Culture Method has disappeared thanks to the concerted suppression on microscopy. In 2004 she already claimed that she could not find any uninfected blood in the USA anymore.
Dr. Lida Mattman studied borrelia for decades and was nominated for the Nobel Prize. She is recognized for her work with diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, Lou Gehrig’s disease, scleroderma and Parkinson’s. She described the etiology of interstitial cystitis and worked to discern the causes of rheumatoid arthritis and anterior uveitis, the most common cause of blindness.She also taught and used a new method to diagnose tuberculosis in 48 hours.
Having earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in microbiology and virology respectively from the University of Kansas and a doctorate in immunology from Yale University in 1940, she was professor of microbiology at Wayne State University since 1949 and is credited with ushering thousands of would-be doctors and nurses into the medical profession. She was awarded the university’s President’s Award for Outstanding Teaching and Research in 1977, retired in 1982, and was inducted into the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame in 2005. Her book, “Cell Wall Deficient Forms,” written in 1974, is regarded as an invaluable education tool among researchers, students and physicians in the field of microbiology.
In addition to doing research at the universities of Iowa and Pennsylvania, she served as director of clinical laboratories for the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Commission and was an instructor at the Harvard School of Public Health.Dr. Mattman died in 2008 at 96 due to liver failure. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/29190964/lida-mattman
Mattman isolated living Borrelia spirochetes in mosquitoes, fleas, mites, semen, urine, blood, plasma and Cerebral Spinal Fluid. She discovered that this bacteria is dangerous because it can survive and spread without cell wall (L shape). Because L-forms do not possess cell wall, they are resistant to antibiotics that act upon the cell wall.
Others have found various ways Bb is transmitted as well:
Burgess could infect cats with Bb orally, ocularly, and via IV
“The presence of live spirochetes in a genital lesion strongly suggests that sexual transmission of Lyme disease occurs,” said Middelveen. “We need to do more research to determine the risk of sexual transmission of this syphilis-like organism.”
The CDC/IDSA/NIH are on vacation and still haven’t received the memo
But like so many other pioneers who expose inconvenient truths about Lyme, the Michigan State Attorney’s Office told Dr. Mattman to stop testing for Lyme using her gold standard direct culture technique. She also successfully duplicated the results of the Bowen Q-RiBb test, which provided a preliminary report of the findings within 24 hours of receiving the specimen. The final report included digital photographs of the finding, which was useful in evaluating treatment by comparing pre and post serial dilution results.
Mattman was subsequently threatened with time in jail or a fine of 5,000 dollars a day. State police arrived at her lab with handcuffs and tried to find evidence that she was still testing but they didn’t find what they were looking for. She was forced to stop her valuable work and leave her lab.
The continued adherence to worthless 2-tier CDC testing is on purpose. They don’t want an accurate test – they had two and buried them!
Presence of Babesia odocoilei and Borrelia burgdorferi Sensu Stricto in a Tick and Dual Parasitism of Amblyomma inornatum and Ixodes scapularis on a Bird in Canada
John D. Scott 1,*, Kerry L. Clark 2 and Lance A. Durden 3
Wild birds transport ticks into Canada that harbor a diversity of zoonotic pathogens. However, medical practitioners often question how these zoonotic pathogens are present in their locality. In this study, we provide the first report of an Amblyomma inornatum tick cofeeding with a blacklegged tick, Ixodes scapularis, which parasitized a Veery, Catharus fuscescens—a neotropical songbird. Using the flagellin (flaB) gene of the Lyme disease bacterium, Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato, and the 18S rRNA gene of the Babesia piroplasm, a malaria-like microorganism, we detected Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto and Babesia odocoilei, respectively, in an I. scapularis nymph.After the molt, these ticks can bite humans. Furthermore, this is the first documentation of B. odocoilei in a tick parasitizing a bird.
Our findings substantiate the fact that migratory songbirds transport neotropical ticks long distances, and import them into Canada during northward spring migration. Health care practitioners need to be aware that migratory songbirds transport pathogen-laden ticks into Canada annually, and pose an unforeseen health risk to Canadians.
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**Comment**
This study is important because it demonstrates a number of things:
There are many strains of these pathogens that aren’t being considered and tested for. Babesia odocoilei is a prime example but this is happening with each and every pathogen. This demonstrates another reason why patients are ill but test negative. Normally we think of B. microti, B. divergans, and B. duncani infecting humans http://www.ncagr.gov/oep/oneMedicine/noms/2010/Moncayo_Abelardo_Human_Babesiosis.pdf but there are others: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3998201/InAustria and Italy patients experienced a severe illness caused by EU1, a species closely related to B. odocoilei. InTaiwan it was (TW1) and in Korea (KO1). Human babesiosis is now reported from around the world. The study in this link states that reported human cases of babesiosis have been attributed, without strong molecular evidence to B. divergans: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3020600/
THE NUMBER OF SYMPTOMS AND DURATION OF ILLNESS IN PATIENTS WITH CONCURRENT LYME DISEASE AND BABESIOSIS ARE GREATER THAN IN PATIENTS WITH EITHER INFECTION ALONE
Medical Diagnostic Laboratories, L.L.C., Fights Tick- and Mosquito-borne Epidemic with New Comprehensive Testing for Vector-borne Disease.
Hamilton, NJ., March 18, 2019 –Medical Diagnostic Laboratories, L.L.C., (MDL), a Genesis Biotechnology Group® (GBG) company and CLIA-certified, CAP-accredited laboratory specializing in high-complexity, state-of-the-art, automated DNA-based molecular analyses, has expanded its testing to include a comprehensive program for the detection of vector-borne diseases.
Unfortunately, new tick- and mosquito-borne diseases continue to emerge, increasing in prevalence year after year. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has reported that the number of disease cases from mosquitoes, ticks, and fleas has tripled from 2004 to 2016. Ticks and mosquitos that carry bacterial, parasitic, and viral pathogens continue to increase in number, species, and geographic range. Currently, tick-borne diseases are widely distributed throughout the United States, with major concentrations in the Northeast, Upper Midwest, and across the middle of the Midwest and Atlantic states.
To combat this growing medical issue, MDL has renewed their efforts to provide the most comprehensive vector-borne disease test menu. Their multi-phase implementation will offer a comprehensive platform blending direct (molecular testing) and indirect (serological) testing methods. This important information helps providers determine their patients’ exposure risk, the pathogen(s) associated with often-overlapping symptomatology, the most effective antimicrobial treatment for active infections, and appropriate prophylactic treatment for exposure. Phase Two, expected to launch in Q2 2019, will feature tick identification. MDL will also offer immune status testing using flow cytometry to evaluate CD3-/CD8-/CD57+ natural killer cells and other immune markers to help assess treatment response for acute and Post-treatment Lyme disease Syndrome patients.
Testing will detect a variety of pathogens associated with tick-borne disease including:
Borrelia species (US and European strains of Lyme disease and Relapsing fever)
Rickettsia species (Spotted Fever and Typhus Fever)
Ehrlichia species (Ehrlichiosis)
Francisella tularensis (Tularemia)
Babesia species (Babesiosis)
Powassan virus and Bourbon virus
Mosquito-borne viruses will include Zika virus, Chikungunya virus, Dengue virus, Japanese Encephalitis virus, and Usutu virus.
This is not the first time that MDL has been on cutting-edge of clinical diagnostic testing for vector-borne disease. In 2001 they were the first lab to identify and report, in peer-reviewed scientific journals, co-infections of Ixodes scapularis (deer tick) with Borrelia burgdorferi and Bartonella henselae. According to Dr. Eli Mordechai, Chief Executive Officer (CEO),
“Our laboratory has always poured resources into vector-borne research by developing and enhancing tests in concert with our national and international clinician clients. We’re committed to leading the way in vector-borne diagnostics and partnering with healthcare providers to offer patients the best care possible”.
About MDL
MDL is a CLIA-certified infectious disease laboratory specializing in high-complexity, state-of-the-art, automated, DNA-based molecular analyses. Using unique molecular techniques, MDL provides clinicians from many specialties valuable information to assist in the diagnosis, evaluation, and treatment of viral, fungal, and bacterial infections. MDL is a member of the Genesis Biotechnology Group located in Hamilton, New Jersey, in “Einstein’s Alley”, the research and technology corridor of New Jersey.
About GBG
GBG is a consortium of vertically-integrated corporate research entities, which facilitates the overall market implementation and delivery of biomedical science products and services related to diagnostics and drug discovery. Through the consolidation of research activities, and the collaboration of diverse groups of scientists with expertise in molecular biology, genetics, high throughput screening (HTS), pharmacology, molecular modeling, and medicinal chemistry, GBG is well-positioned to create and sustain complex research platforms in drug discovery and the design of surrogate biomarkers for chronic diseases.
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Madison Area Lyme Support Group 